Kitsune of Fairy Tail
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: A change during the Rescue Gaara Arc changes everything. Thrown into Earth Land, Naruto must adapt to a life among mages and fulfill his new destiny. Naruto/Ezra. Rated M for future chapters.
1. A New World

Well, here's my newest project, a Naruto/Erza pairing.

Summary: A change during the Rescue Gaara Arc changes everything. Thrown into Earth Land, Naruto must adapt to a life among mages and fulfill his new destiny.

Pairing: Naruto/Erza

Notes: I intend for their to be occasional lemons in later chapters, so be warned. In addition to that, the M rating is for language and safety.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

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**Introduction Arc**

**1. A New World**

Naruto's eyes shot open as he finally regained consciousness. He immediately tried to sit up, but he felt pain shoot through him when he did, so he remained lying down.

Turning his head, he took in his surroundings as best as he could without being able to sit up or see too well as a result of it being dark. Still, he was able to make out that he was in a small room that resembled a hospital room, but he could tell right off the bad that it was not a hospital. The smell of medicine was easy to pick up, but it was warmer and quieter than any hospital he had ever been to.

His short term memory started coming back to him all of the sudden. He had been with Kakashi, chasing after the Akatsuki member named Deidara, who had taken Gaara's body and run off. They had eventually caught him and cornered him, but he had stolen back Gaara's body and began to self-destruct.

_I guess I didn't get out of the blast range quick enough. At least I made sure to throw Gaara to Sakura first though._

The best he could come up with, he had been hit by the explosion just after he threw Gaara to his kunoichi teammate. Still, one thing bugged him. He had seen Kakashi activate his Mangekyo Sharingan again. He should have been able to teleport the explosion away.

_Maybe he did… that has to be how I survived. It was a pretty big blast._

As pain shot through him again, a new question occurred to him.

_Why hasn't Sakura finished healing me? I'm not going to die from it or anything, but it has to be something she could fix._

"Sakura, are you around?" Naruto asked, finding it difficult to speak too loudly. Several minutes passed, and he received no answer.

_I could wait here until she gets back… but I really don't want to do that._

Naruto would have been the first person to admit that he was impatient, especially when he had an alternative means of healing himself if need be.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. _Give me some of your chakra, you damned fox! I'm not about to just lie around here when I could be walking around, so hurry up and pay your rent!_

As expected, a small portion of the fox's chakra shot through his chakra system, and he could feel his injuries gradually lessen until they were no more. At that time, he felt the fox's chakra dissipate. It was not the most pleasant entity that he had ever met, but he was glad that it had only given him the small amount that it did. Of course, it hated giving him any more chakra than it needed to unless it though it could manipulate him, which only occurred in battle.

Naruto sat up and turned in the bed he was lying in. As he did, he noticed that the only clothes he had on at that moment were a pair of torn up pants and his boxers underneath.

"I really did get hit messed up, didn't I?" he asked himself aloud. Looking at a table nearby, he saw his hip pouch, shuriken holder, and kunai holster were still intact, even though they were charred. His shirt was lying at the edge of the table, and he saw how damaged it was. It had about as much cloth left in at as a handkerchief had.

"Yes, you did," a voice that he had never heard before suddenly said.

Looking to the door, he saw an older woman looking at him. She had pink hair tied in a bun, red eyes, and she wore a red cloak over dark clothes. In the darkness, he could not see her in any finer detail than that.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, clearly surprised. She looked as though she may have been related to Sakura because of the hair color, but he suspected that that was not the case.

"I should be asking you the same question, boy. After a single day, you wake up and are able to speak, and then when I come in to check on you, you start using some sort of demonic power to regenerate your wounds," she said with a stern look in her eyes. "What are you?"

"I'm a human," Naruto said with a frown. He hated hearing mention of demons, especially seeing as how he had one inside of him.

"Humans don't have demonic powers," she countered with an unwavering look in her eyes.

"Jinchuriki do," Naruto said as he looked back at her with a frown.

"And what is a jinchuriki?" she asked, actually appearing to be a little confused.

"Someone with a demon sealed inside of them," Naruto answered, surprising himself. He was not sure why he was being so open about what he was, but something about the woman had him at ease. There was no anger or judgment in her eyes, even when she brought up his demonic powers.

"I've never heard of a spell that could seal away a demon inside of a mortal," she said with a frown.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked as he rose to his feet. "Spells are just something you find in tales. Jutsu are real."

"Jutsu?" the woman asked, sounding mystified. "What are you talking about, boy?"

Naruto frowned at that. No one in the Elemental Nations could go without knowing what jutsu were.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei and Sakura? They should know what's going on," Naruto asked as a sense of foreboding came over him.

"I know of no one named Kakashi or Sakura," the woman said with a frown. "I found you in the middle of the forest in a crater formed by a large explosion. The damage you sustained would have been fatal for almost anyone else, but you're clearly not normal."

"I see," Naruto said as he sat back down on the bed. "When Kakashi-sensei used Kamui, I must have got caught in it. He said it could teleport his target to another dimension… but this is just ridiculous."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, clearly irritated.

"It's a long story," Naruto said as looked at the table next to the bed once again. He recognized a charred piece of metal on the table as part of his forehead protector.

"I have time," she said. "But since you're not a normal human, I'll at least let you know my name. I am Porlyusica."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm from another dimension," Naruto said, not surprised by the skeptical look that she gave him. "I'm from a land known as the Elemental Nations. Every country is named after a certain element, though some are a bit more elaborate, like the Land of the Waterfall and the Land of Waves. My sensei said the countries had a feudal type of government, whatever that means. But the important thing is that the most powerful men in women in the world were ninja."

"Ninja wear black and sneak around, don't they?" she asked dryly.

"Not in my world," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I think we were called ninja because we practiced ninjutsu, along with genjutsu and taijutsu. You mentioned spells, so does that mean that there are witches in this world?"

"We have mages in this world," she answered, still not sounding as though she believed him.

"Well, the ninja of my world could use ninjutsu, which is pretty much like magic. I've seen people use it to turn the ground into a swamp, to shoot fire from their mouths, and even to form a dragon out of water. There's also genjutsu, which is like ninjutsu but is just illusions, and fuinjutsu, which is like ninjutsu but is based on sealing things away," Naruto explained with a frown. He hated explaining things, especially when he was not exactly knowledgeable about too much.

"Suppose I do believe you," she suddenly said. "How did you get here?"

At that question, Naruto began to do his best to explain to her what happened with Gaara and Akatsuki. By the end of it, he hoped that he had explained it well enough for her to understand.

"I believe you," she said after he was done. "Few can lie well enough to fool me, and I can tell you weren't lying. It's not the type of story most people will believe though."

Naruto sighed in relief at that.

"So what do you plan on doing now that you're in Earth Land?" she asked. "You cannot just stay here. No, that wouldn't do at all. You might not be a normal human, but you're still human. I don't like humans."

"I understand," Naruto said with a frown. "I guess I could pass myself off as a mage. I don't know much about your mages, but my ninjutsu has to be pretty similar to magic."

"In that case, I have a responsibility before me," she said as she turned her back to him. "I chose to bring you here and to heal you, so you are my responsibility for now. I will teach you everything you need to know to pass yourself as a mage and a citizen of Fiore. By the end of the week, I'll send you off to Magnolia."

"Thank you," Naruto said. The prospect that someone would help him so soon after he appeared in a strange new world brought him a great deal of happiness.

"Don't mention it," she said seriously. "Now go to bed. I will begin teaching you about Earth Land, Fiore, and mages in the morning."

She immediately left the room at that point, and Naruto laid back down in the bed.

As he tried to go to sleep, he could not help but feel fear and loneliness of the like he had never felt in his entire life. Not only was he alone in the new world, but he knew that he would never get the chance to see Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka, or any of his other friends again.

The prospect of going back to his world never cross his mind, and that was for a fairly obvious reason. Even if he found someone who could send him to another dimension, it was highly unlikely that they would know where to send him to. In addition to that, he had a suspicion that Kakashi's Kamui sent targets to random dimensions, so the likelihood of anyone from the Elemental Nations finding him was about as slim as things came.

He finally allowed sleep to claim him as the thoughts of his current situation filled him.

* * *

On the morning of the seventh day, Naruto stood in a clearing a short ways south of the tree-like house that Porlyusica lived in.

No longer did he wear his shredded clothes. His new acquaintance had managed to get him some black closed toe shoes, black pants, and a sleeveless black shirt. Though he had not thought to ask her where she got them from, he could not help but think it was a rather funny joke. After all, she had given a ninja all black clothing, just as she suggested was what ninja wore.

The past seven days had been fairly nice, in all reality. He had learned all about Fiore, mages, the guilds, magic since he arrived in Earth Land, but that was not all he had accomplished.

Porlyusica thought she could get him out of her hair if she let him stay for a week, but she had underestimated him. Naruto's magnetic personality had already managed to dull her dislike enough that she had told him that he did not have to leave unless he wanted to.

Of course, Naruto had no intention of staying. He was not the type of person who could have been happy by staying in a house in the middle of the forest, living like a hermit. He wanted to live a life of adventure and fun.

As it turned out, she had offered him a chance to live the kind of life he wanted to. Apparently, she was an old friend of the leader of the nearby Mage Guild in Magnolia Town. From the things he had heard of Fairy Tail, it sounded like a pretty interesting place.

But at that moment, Naruto was not too thrilled. Despite the things that had started to go good for him, something had happened that was not a good thing.

He had been seeing if all of his abilities still world in Earth Land, and he had quickly learned that all of his jutsu did work in the new world, except for one. He was incapable of summoning toads. He had hoped to summon Gamakichi and pass on a message to Jiraiya, but even when he put in enough chakra to summon Gamabunta, nothing appeared, not even a tadpole. It seemed that cross-dimensional summoning was impossible.

The knowledge that he could not see any familiar faces was hard on him, but he shook it off. He knew that everything happened for a reason, and he could only make the best of the situation at the present time.

"So, you're about to head to Magnolia Town?" Porlyusica asked from behind him.

"I think it would be a good idea," he said with a nod of his head. "I'm ready to do something. Besides, I want to see a real mage."

"You already have," she said dryly. "I told you that I am a mage, didn't I?"

"You did," Naruto said with a smile. "But you won't show me your magic, so I don't really have anything to compare my abilities to."

She just looked at him blankly at sighed. "When you reach the Fairy Tail headquarters, seek out their master, Makarov. Tell him that I sent you and that you need to speak in private. Tell him everything, and he will let you in the guild. For being one of the strongest guilds out there, it's actually quite easy to become a member."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he looked away from the clearing and toward the nearby road that went west towards Magnolia.

"Before you go, you might want to take these," she said as she held out a black hip pouch, a black shuriken holster, and a black kunai holster. "I went ahead of made you new ones and put your equipment in them. You might need them."

"You made them?" Naruto asked curiously as he attached the hip pouch to his back left pocket and fastened the kunai and shuriken holsters around his right leg.

"What do you think I do when you're not around?" she asked with raised eyebrow. "I told you before. I don't like humans. It's less annoying to make new clothes than to go to the city and buy some."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he rolled his eyes.

"Stop by next time you're in the neighborhood," she said.

"I will," Naruto promised with a wave. As he made his way down the road, he reached into his pocket and removed a green crystal necklace from it. He had found it where he appeared in the forest. Fortunately, it had not been damaged in the least.

Putting the First Hokage's necklace around his neck, he continued on his way.

That day, the first day of June, he planned on becoming a mage of Fairy Tail.

No one could have foreseen the aftershocks that would be left on the world as a result.

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Author's Note: Thanks for reading. If you have any comments or criticism, feel free to review.

Just in case it comes up, I'll answer it now. Naruto's world will not be shown in this fanfic at all, provided I stick to my current plans. His world is irrelevant at this point in time. I'm leaving the fate of his world to your imagination. I also want to say right now that he will be the only shinobi to enter the world of Fairy Tail.


	2. Fairy Tail

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing last chapter. Just to clarify everything, Naruto was brought into the world of Fairy Tail five weeks before Lucy joins Fairy Tail, which means that the current events of the story take place a month before canon.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

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**Introduction Arc**

**2. Fairy Tail**

Naruto had thought that he was prepared for anything.

And then he stepped inside Magnolia.

He had thought the Hidden Leaf Village and the Hidden Sand Village were massive, but they were relatively small in comparison to Magnolia.

Walking down the street, he came to realize exactly how different the world he was in was than his world. The technology was more advanced, the towns and cities were more populous, and it was just completely different.

He had thought they were similar enough. Ninja and mages both had special powers and did jobs for clients, but it seemed that the similarities stopped there for the most part.

Turning to his left, Naruto came to a stop. Before him was a large white building with red roofs, orange framed windows, and orange oval-shaped doors that had a slight red tint to them. Above the doors was a golden sign with the words _FAIRY TAIL_ written in blue.

"So this is a mage guild," he said to himself, shaking his head. It was hard to believe that a mage guild was so small, whereas the base of ninja, a hidden village, was so large. "I guess things really are different."

Taking hold of the door handle, he pulled the door open, revealing what appeared to be a lunch hall with several long benches and tables stretched across the room. There were actually two sets of benches and tables, allowing a path to go from the door to the bar at the far wall from it.

Looking around, Naruto saw that there were at least fifty people seated, and most of them were looking at him, no doubt curious as to what he was doing there. If a stranger had walked into the Administration Building back home, he had no doubt that they would get some curious looks.

Clearing his throat, he said, "Is your master around? I was told that I needed to speak with him."

A woman a few years older than Naruto made her way down the center aisle with a smile on her face. She had long white hair with a portion of it bound in a frontward pony tail and blue eyes. She wore a maroon dress with pink trimming on it and a pink bow. He took note of the fact that she was exactly the type of girl Jiraiya liked to _research_. Naturally, that thought saddened him a bit.

"Hello, I'm Mirajane," she said with a cheerful smile. "Master should be around here somewhere."

"I'm up here."

Naruto and Mirajane both looked up to the second floor, where a short, old man with balding white hair and a thick mustache was sitting. He had on an orange and white attire on with a striped blue and orange hat that looked as though it had some kind of horns on it.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and a mutual acquaintance sent me here," Naruto said as he looked at the man. "Her name is Porlyusica."

That earned everyone's attention immediately.

"Very well then," the man said as he jumped down to the ground. "My name is Makarov. If she sent you, we can talk in the basement about whatever it is that brings you here."

"Thanks," Naruto said with a light smile.

With that, he followed the older man to the basement, ignoring all of the eyes there were on him.

* * *

"And that's my story," Naruto said as he sat on a crate opposite of Makarov.

"This is most unexpected," Makarov said with a frown. "Porlyusica wouldn't have sent you here if she didn't believe you, and I'll trust her judgment on this matter."

"Thank you," Naruto said as he exhaled a deep breath.

"I do want you to use this power of yours though," Makarov said suddenly. "I can sense magic better than most people, but what I sense within you is weak and unusual. It's nothing like the magical power that mages wield."

Nodding, Naruto formed the ram hand sign and channeled chakra.

Immediately, Makarov's eyes widened."That power… if that energy was ordinary magical power, you would have more than any but myself and the strongest mage in Fairy Tail. It's different than normal magical power though. It's almost as though it's alive."

"It is," Naruto said with a nod. "It's chakra, the combination of my spiritual and physical energy. Losing all of my chakra is as fatal as losing all of my blood."

"When a mage loses all of his magic power, he gets very ill, but it does not necessarily spell death, though it is not out of the question," Makarov said thoughtfully. "So why have you come to tell me of this?"

"I wish to join Fairy Tail," Naruto answered, surprising him. "I know I'll probably never be able to return to my world, so I might as well do something with my life."

Makarov grew quiet as he went deep in thought. After several minutes, he said, "I will not turn you away. Understand that joining Fairy Tail is not a small matter though. We are a family in all but blood, and it's to be expected that you would do anything for a fellow member."

_It's like the Will of Fire._

"I understand," Naruto said with determination in his eyes.

"Very well then," Makarov said as he hopped down from the crate that he had been sitting on. "I will allow you to join Fairy Tail. I have seen your eyes, and I can tell that you have had a rough life. You'll find that many of the mages in Fairy Tail have similar experiences, so I have no doubt that you'll fit in sooner or later. However, your past will need to stay shrouded in mystery for the most part. Tell anyone who asks that you come from another land if you wish, but I'd prefer if you kept how distant that land is from Fiore to yourself. "

"I understand," Naruto said. He hated the prospect of keeping his entire life secret, but he could understand it. "How am I to explain my abilities though?"

"In this world, there are types of magic that are lost in the annals of history," Makarov said thoughtfully. "If you wish to, you may claim that yours is such a magic. This… ninjutsu… is clearly different from anything anyone else has ever seen."

"I guess that would work," Naruto said. He clearly understood the difficulties of explaining how he used his abilities. It would not take a genius to discover that his abilities were different, even if they were somewhat similar to ordinary forms of magic. After all, he had been told that some mages used an ability called requip, which was very similar to sealing and unsealing items from scrolls. In addition to that, some mages could transform, which was essentially the same as him using the Transformation Jutsu.

"Now, we will come upstairs, and I'll have you registered as a member of Fairy Tail. After you're given the Fairy Tail stamp, you can start doing jobs, though I'd suggest that you ask another member to accompany you at first. It's not uncommon for new members to do jobs with older members at first," Makarov said as he began to make his way to the door.

_I guess that makes sense. What is a Fairy Tail stamp though?_

Suddenly, Makarov came to a stop and looked back at Naruto. "Out of curiosity, do you have a penchant for destruction?"

Naruto grew thoughtful at that. He would not have described his abilities as destructive in all honesty. Without the ability to summon toads, his only techniques were the Academy level jutsu, basic skill with fuinjutsu, the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Rasengan, and the Great Rasengan. None of them were overly destructive. Still, the question gave him pause. He remembered how destructive his battle with Sasuke had been at the Valley of the End thanks to his one-tailed form.

"Only when I get serious," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle.

Makarov actually gave him a smile and said, "You'll fit right in."

Naruto had no idea what the old man meant by that, but he was sure he would find out soon enough.

As they reached the ground floor, everyone's eyes turned to them.

"Mira, would you get a stamp out for our new member?" Makarov asked, looking to Mirajane with a smile.

Mixed reactions came from that question. It seemed that half of the people present were surprised while the other half looked excited.

"Sure thing Master," Mirajane said with her cheerful smile as she went around to the other side of the bar. "Here you go." As she said the last part, she set a stamp on the bar,

Makarov walked over to the bar, took the stamp, and looked to Naruto. "Where would you like it? It won't wash off so long as you are part of Fairy Tail, so you don't want to think too lightly of its placement."

Without a hint of hesitation, Naruto stuck his right arm out, allowing Makarov to leave a black stamp of the Fairy Tail emblem on the middle of his right arm.

"It is official then," Makarov said as he handed the stamp back to Mirajane. "You are now a member of Fairy Tail."

"Congratulations Naruto Uzumaki," Mirajane said as she walked over to him. "You'll enjoy your time in Fairy Tail."

"Just Naruto is fine," he said with a light smile. "I'm looking forward to it, thought I bet I'll stay busy. I just got to town, so I need to find a place to stay."

"Next to the bar, you can find the Request Board. All of the jobs that you can take are pinned to it. When you decide on what, just take it down and head to meet up with the client at the destination marked on the paper," Mirajane explained.

_So it doesn't have to actually get assigned to you like missions in the Hidden Leaf Village. That's kind of cool._

"Master Makarov said I should have an older member accompany me at first," Naruto said as he leaned against the bar. He quickly took note that everyone had already turned their attention away from him and Makarov was nowhere in sight.

"Ah, well that happens," Mirajane said as she looked around the room. "It would probably be best that you ask someone who isn't already in a team."

"A team?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yeah," she said with a cheerful nod. "When a few mages work well together, they often form a team. Teams can accomplish more difficult missions easier than single mages can."

"Ah, okay," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm actually not from Fiore, so I'm not too knowledgeable about things like that."

"Oh, so that explains how you didn't know who I was," she said. Naturally, Naruto did not realize that she was essentially the cover model for Fairy Tail at the time. "Well, the best people you could ask to accompany you would be Macao Conbolt, Gray Fullbuster, Loke, or my brother, Elfman."

Naruto watched her point at each of the individuals in question. It was easy to see that Macao was a more experienced member, if his age said anything about the matter. The giant _S_ shaped necklace he wore was a bit more flashy than he was used to though.

The one named Gray did not impress Naruto too much at a first glance. He looked like he was laid back, but it was hard to make any further judgments about a guy who was only wearing boxers in public.

Then there was Loke, who had no less than four girls sitting with him. He instantly reminded Naruto of a mix of Sasuke and Jiraiya. He could clearly get girls without trying, like Sasuke could, but he actually welcomed it, like Jiraiya would have.

And then his eyes went to the large man with spiked white hair that was sitting at one of the far tables. Though there was nothing menacing about his casual blue suit, Naruto immediately saw the scar running down the right side of his face, and he felt that there was something unusual about the man.

Just going by his first impressions, Naruto could not help but feel a little underwhelmed. It was hard to believe that those four were the ones that she was suggesting.

"Who would recommend most for the new guy?" Naruto asked.

Before Mirajane could say anything, someone else spoke.

"I'll go with you."

Naruto's eyes were drawn to a brown haired girl sitting at the bar. She was easily a few years older than him, but that did not stop her from having over a dozen empty bottles of beer in front of her. Clad in a blue bikini top and a pair of knee length black shorts, the teen was attractive to say the least. Naturally, Naruto was on edge when around nearly every attractive girl that he met. They always turned out to be very strong. He just hoped she was not ill-tempered like his last female teammate.

"This is Cana Alberona," Mirajane said. "She's the most senior member of Fairy Tail in our age group."

Naruto noticed the slight irritation in Cana's eyes at the words, though he would not understand it for a long time to come.

"I was about to go and take a job anyways. At least this way I'll get to see what the newcomer is capable of before anyone else," she said before she downed another bottle of booze.

_How is she not drunk?_ The question would not leave Naruto, but he soon came to the realization that he would not figure that one out at the present time.

"I already picked a job. If you want in, just say so," she said as she turned to face him. "We just have to pick up some family heirloom and take it to Hargeon, and the pass is a hundred thousand jewels. I don't have a problem splitting it fifty-fifty."

"Sure, I'll go," Naruto said with a nod of his head. "It sounds like a pretty simple job."

She merely rose to her feet and said, "Let's go then. If we hurry up, we might be in time for the two o'clock train."

Though he followed after her, he could not help but wonder one thing.

_What is a train?_

It seemed that Porlyusica had left out a couple things in when she was teaching him.

* * *

While Naruto and Cana were making their way to pick up the family heirloom for their job, Makarov was standing in front of a tree-like house in the forest to the east of Magnolia.

After Naruto had become an official member of Fairy Tail, he had decided to visit his old friend to check up on Naruto's story, among other things.

"Hello Makarov," Porlyusica greeted as she walked outside of her house with an emotionless expression on her face. "I was expecting you."

"I imagine so," he said as he crossed his arms. "Is he really a ninja from another dimension?"

"Very straightforward," she commented. "Yes, he is as he says he is. I've ran tests on him. He's as human as you would expect, but he is different from the humans of this world."

"You mean the source of power within him… his chakra?" Makarov asked for a frown.

"That's not what truly makes him different," Porlyusica said, almost amused. "He must have left some bits and pieces of his story out. He has a powerful demon sealed within him. According to him, it possesses more power than I could imagine."

Makarov frowned, but he could not feel angry at Naruto for leaving something like that out. He was starting to suspect that the demon was the source of the pained life he had clearly led.

"He is not aware of how powerful mages can be," Makarov said quietly. "Regardless, the demon is of little consequence for now. If my suspicions are correct, no mage has the power to dispel a seal created from the techniques of his world."

"He warned me that if he dies, the demon will be freed, but it will take several years for it to reform," Porlyusica said as she turned her back to him.

"Then he just won't die," Makarov said without any hint of surprise or worry. Even if it was too powerful to kill, there were ways of defeating such a creature. The greatest accomplishment of Gray Fullbuster's teacher sprung to mind at that thought.

"Good," she said as she began to walk back to her house. "Keep an eye on him. He could be used as a weapon if the right person gets a hold of him. And even if he doesn't, there is still the issue of whether any offspring he has will inherit his abilities."

Turning away from her, Makarov made his way bag to Magnolia, fully away of the implications of her last statement.

He could very well introduce a new source of magic to the world, and there was no telling what would happen if he sired a child that possess his abilities in addition to the magic that was native to Earth Land.

* * *

Author's Note: Now that it's established that Kitsune of Fairy Tail started a little before the canon storyline, let me say that the job that Naruto and Cana are on will not actually change anything in the Fairy Tail world. It's simply a means to an end. It'll only last a chapter, so it's not like it'll take long to write.

Now that that is out of the way, let me say this clearly. Naruto does not possess the magic power that the mages of Earth Land do, so he cannot use their magic. It will definitely be difficult for him to figure out how to get stronger since I chose to take him from a time when he was weaker. I have ideas to circumvent the issues that he will run into, so it's not as though I'm rushing into anything head first.

I'm sure at least one person wonders why I didn't bring him into the story with Sage Mode or control of the Nine-Tails. Well, it's pretty simple why. He's simply too strong at that point unless I bring him in into the Fairy Tail world in the current arc, which would force me to come up with more creative plans or update at a snail's pace.

Bringing him into the Fairy Tail world when I did already puts him at an advantage. Most mages in the series only have one or two abilities. Naruto can transform, create clones, substitute his body for another person or object to evade an attack, walk up walls, walk on water, and create a ball of energy that can grind things to dust. That's not even including his skill with using storage scrolls and his taijutsu/weapons skills. He's not underpowered.


	3. A Simple Job

Author's Note: Just to clarify, the Naruto world is of no consequence to this story. I said this in Chapter 1, but people can asking, so I guess they missed it. In addition to that, assume that only the events of the Naruto manga occured in his past. The filler arcs, movies, and OVA's are secondary canon at best. I'm just using the primary source (the Naruto manga) for Naruto's background.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Introduction Arc**

**3. A Simple Job**

Naruto sighed as he looked out the window of the train. He was not too fond of it due to the fact that he was left with nothing to do and it was not too much faster than he could run. Of course, he did his best to ignore the latter since he doubted that the mage with him could match his speed.

Looking at the girl in the opposite seat of him, his eyes found their way to the small wooden box that the client's family heirloom was in. They did not stay on the box for long though. He knew absolutely nothing about his temporary partner, so he decided to try to pass the time in another way. "Hey Cana, what kind of magic do you use?"

She seemed to brighten up at that question as she reached behind her. Her hands found their way in front of him a moment later with a deck of cards. "I use Card Magic. I'm a holder type mage who can use these cards to devastating effect. With the right card, I could put someone to sleep. That's just the beginning though. Each one has a different ability, and some of them can be combined together for my most powerful attacks."

"It's pretty unique," Naruto said as he sat back in his seat. Porlyusica had told him about Guns Magic, Requip, Transformation, Take-Over, and many other kinds of magic, but she had never spoke of Card Magic. "How many different types of mages are there in the guild?"

Cana grew deep in thought at that question. "Well, there's no easy way to answer that question. There are mages with just about every kind of magic out there in Fairy Tail."

"What kind of magic does Mirajane have?" he asked curiously. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that most beautiful women he met were incredibly powerful, but he felt there was something special about her.

"You can call her Mira. Everyone does," she said as she looked out the window. "You wouldn't know it, seeing as how she pretty much stays at the guild all the time as a waitress, but Mira is probably the fifth strongest mage in the guild… excluding Master Makarov, of course. Because of an incident that happened a couple years ago, she pretty much stopped fighting or doing jobs. Even so, she is a skilled practitioner of Transformation Magic and Take-Over."

Naruto immediately realized that it was not a topic that she wished to discuss, so he decided not to ask about the incident.

"What about you?" she asked. "What types of abilities do you have?"

"You have never seen anyone with abilities like mine," Naruto said, nearly laughing at the look she gave him. "Fine, I'll tell you a bit. I use a special type of magic that is unique to my homeland. It's similar to some of the kinds of magic you've seen before, but it's different at the same time. I have my own versions of Transformation and Requip, and I have a few other abilities."

Before she could say anything, the train began to come to a screeching halt, despite the fact that they were no quite halfway to their destination.

* * *

Once the train finally came to a stop, Cana looked at him seriously. "And here I thought you wouldn't get to see what our guild is infamous for right off the bat," she said as she rose to her feet and handed him the box. "Trains like this only come to a sudden stop in the middle of nowhere when someone pulls the emergency brakes. My guess is that someone's try to rob it."

"What are we waiting for?" Naruto asked as he put the box in his hip pouch as he rose to his feet.

"That's the spirit," she said as she led him to one of the doors and out of the train.

As they reached the outside of it, they saw that there was some kind of rock barrier in front of the train. In addition to that, a few men were making their way to another set of doors to board the train.

"Yeah, they're definitely going to try to rob it. I'd say they're members of a dark guild too. That's just like what you'd expect from them. Regardless, we need to stop them from getting on board. A fight inside the train will spell disaster," Cana said. Suddenly, she looked over to where Naruto had been standing and saw that he had disappeared. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw that he was blocking their access to the door.

_I didn't even here him move. How in the hell did he cover so much distance so quickly… and without me even realizing it? Can he teleport?_

She immediately took off running towards them, knowing that the only way she would get her answer was by catching up with him.

* * *

Upon seeing the mages that were no doubt trying to rob the train, Naruto had sprung into action. The Body Flicker Technique was among the few jutsu that he knew, and it worked well enough in circumstances like that.

Appearing in front of the door that they were headed to, he saw that there were three mages there. One of them was standing at the front of the train where the rock barrier was, and the other two were not far from him.

"I'll give you one chance," Naruto said as he looked the mages in the eyes. "Remove that rock wall and leave."

"And what if we don't?" one of the asked, clearly unafraid.

"In that case, I'll have to knock you around," Naruto said as he began to mold chakra.

"Earth Make: Rock Lance," one of the mages suddenly called out as he put his hands together in a manner that Naruto had never seen before. His right hand was balled in his fist and his left hand was spread open.

Suddenly, a number rock spikes shot out from the ground at him.

A smile made its way to his face shortly before they hit.

* * *

Upon seeing the four rock lances hit Naruto and go threw him, her eyes widened in fear. It was not that she did not think she could beat the mages. She was not exactly one of the weakest members in Fairy Tail after all.

Under her watch, the newest member of Fairy Tail had just sustained wounds that had to be fatal. Even if she were forgiven for such a thing, she did not believe that she could forgive herself.

She immediately withdrew three cards and ran towards them. "Card Magic: Summoned Lightning," she called out her attack as she sent it flying at the nearest mage.

The lightning that hit the enemy mage took him out in one blow, but she was stopped by her tracks what she saw after he was taken down.

Where Naruto's body had been, there was now a log. It was being impaled by the rock lances just like Naruto had been.

And then she saw him.

Naruto was standing behind the other mage, who had just slumped down to the ground in unconsciousness. He was completely unharmed, much to her shock.

_How in the world is he alive?_

* * *

Naruto took a deep breath as he walked over to Cana, who appeared to be disturbed.

_What's up with her?_

"How did you survive that?" Cana asked, looking at the impaled log.

"That's a substitution," Naruto answered with a chuckle. "It makes it look like I get injured, but I switch with something right before I get attacked. Sorry I didn't show myself immediately after. I wanted to take out the guy at the front of the train and get a look at that rock wall first."

She took a deep breath and gave him a smile. "In that case, we need to tie these guys up and deal with that rock wall."

"You tie them up, I'll deal with the rock wall," Naruto said, immediately knowing the best way to deal with the situation at hand.

"Okay," she said as she turned her attention to the unconscious mages.

Naruto simply walked to the front of the train and looked at the wall again. Its bottom was curved upward, so it blocked the train, but it did not touch the railroad tracks.

He quickly created a few shadow clones and created a Rasengan.

"Once I finish, I need you all to push it to the other side," he said to the clones.

He quickly pushed the Rasengan through the wall, carving straight through it. Immediately afterwards, the clones pushed the wall to the opposite direction. The rock wall immediately went over and the last support that kept it to the ground snapped. It crashed to the ground with a loud sound, but it caused no harm.

At that point, there were pieces of rock jutting out of the ground about a foot on both sides of the railroad track, but they would in no way interfere with the train's movements.

Naruto grabbed the last mage and dragged him back over to Cana so she could tie him up.

When he reached her, his attention went to the rock spikes that had tried to impale him. It seemed that each one of the spikes went about six inches into the train itself.

"It looks like we damaged it a little," Naruto said as he stuck his hand in his hip pouch.

"It's hard to believe we didn't at least destroy the train tracks," Cana commented offhanded as she worked on tying up the last mage. "We normally do more than that."

Thoughts of Makarov's question about having a penchant for destruction came to mind.

_I think I understand now._

"I'll deal with these too," Naruto said as he removed four paper bombs from his hip pouch and attached them to the spikes.

"What are those?" Cana asked, interested in what he was doing.

"Back up," Naruto said as he walked away from it and formed a one handed hand seal. Suddenly, they exploded, shocking Cana.

It shattered a good portion of the rock spikes immediately, and the spikes fell out of the train.

"Those are paper bombs," Naruto said as he removed another one and handed it to her. "I'm probably the only one who is capable of setting them off."

Cana took the paper bomb and walked back to the train doors, clearly interested in the object. "It's kind of like Card Magic, but it has these runes on it."

"My magic's a bit unique," Naruto said with a grin. "You call them runes; I call them seals."

* * *

Once they were back on the train and it was moving again, Cana asked the question that Naruto had been expecting.

"What kind of mage are you? You didn't use any magic to attack them. All you did was use the strange spell to dodge it."

"In my land, we don't have mages. We have shinobi," Naruto said after a few moments. "Shinobi are trained to fight with physical skills, in addition to using a unique brand of magic. I'm the only one of my kind in this world now though."

"I'm sorry," she said, clearly believing that he meant that his people were all in the afterlife.

"It's fine," Naruto said quietly. "I'm just happy to have Fairy Tail now."

"That's good to hear," she said with a smile. "When we get back, we're going to have a drink together."

"I don't know," Naruto said a little warily. "I'm still a few months away from being sixteen."

"You're legal," she said with a wink. "The legal age in Fiore is fifteen."

"Why not?" Naruto asked after a few moments. "But let's wait until the night after we get back. I still need to find an apartment."

"Sounds good to me," she said with a grin. "You'll especially need it if _she_ hears that our newcomer is responsible for the damages to the train."

"Who is _she_?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"You'll see," she said with a laugh.

Despite his questioning of what she meant, he never figured out who he needed to be wary of.

* * *

The following night, Naruto and Cana were sitting at the bar in Fairy Tail. Though the latter was literally drinking barrels of alcohol, Naruto had only gotten a single bottle of beer. He was not exactly fond of the taste, but the act of drinking seemed to be less about the taste and more about the interactions with everyone around.

"You should've seen it," Cana said, looking to Mirajane. "He has this strange kind of magic that lets him switch his body with another object to dodge attacks."

"Really?" she asked, intrigued by the unusual ability.

It was actually the third time that Cana had told the story of what happened, but with the ever changing crowd near the bar, it was not difficult for it to be told repeatedly without new people hearing it.

"It's just my Substitution," Naruto said, waving it off. "I didn't even have to go all out against them."

"Oh yeah, you never used those other abilities of yours. I think you said you can use Requip and Transformation, didn't you?" Cana asked.

"Sort of," Naruto said, knowing that his abilities were similar to those but still very different.

Everyone was intrigued by the knowledge that he had at least three types of magic, one of which they had never heard of. Still, their attention did not stay on him long. Only two people really stayed focused on him, and that was Mirajane and Makarov.

"So did you get an apartment yet?" Mirajane asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's just a fifty thousand jewel apartment, but it'll work well enough," he answered.

She immediately frowned. "That must not be a very good place."

"I've lived in worse," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Maybe you'll find a better place later on," she said as the frown was replaced with her usual smile.

"Maybe," he said as he continued drinking.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, I'm not happy with this chapter, but it serves its purpose well enough.

As you can clearly see, Naruto's getting used to Fairy Tail and his new comrades.

I will give you guys a hint on content of the next chapter. It will be entitled "Naruto vs Erza"

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	4. Naruto vs Erza

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Introduction Arc**

**4. Naruto vs Erza**

Naruto had been a member of Fairy Tail for a week now.

Since joining, he had spent a great deal of time in the Fairy Tail base and going out on jobs. So far, he had only worked with Cana and Macao, though he had not actually gone out of Magnolia on any jobs. As tedious as the more mundane jobs were, he did not have a problem with staying in town too much.

Everything seemed to be becoming normal around the base, but things could not stay normal for too long, especially when it came to Fairy Tail.

"I still think you should let Levy take a look at those paper bombs of yours. She could probably figure out how to make paper bombs that people with normal magic could use," Cana remarked as she looked at Naruto from her barstool.

"I'll think about it," Naruto said for the millionth time. In all honesty, he did not know if it was such a good idea to give the world a new weapon. As such, he had taken to keeping all of his ninja equipment in more secure places.

In the past week, he had managed to recreate a seal that Jiraiya had told him about. It was called Summoning: Lightning Blade Creation. It was essentially seals in the form of wristbands that he could store all of his ninja equipment in. He had ceased to carry around his hip pouch or holsters. Instead, all of his shuriken and kunai were sealed in his left wrist band while his scrolls, paper bombs, ninja wire, smoke bombs, and fuma shuriken were sealed in his right wrist band. The wrist bands themselves were a mixture of black cloth and off-white canvas. The canvas material stayed at the inside of his arms and was what he actually drew the seals on.

"You always say that," she complained. "If I could apply those to some cards, I could do some pretty cool stuff."

"Master Makarov wouldn't be happy if I gave anyone here something else they could use to blow things up," Naruto said with a frown.

It was an excuse that was made up on the spot, but he saw that the old mage actually nodded his head in agreement at his words.

"We know that only Naruto's unique brand of magic is capable of setting one of those off, so we might as well let him stay as the only person who can use them," Makarov said.

_At least he didn't take it badly when he realized that not even he could activate them._

Shaking his head, he looked at the Master of Fairy Tail. "So how'd the Council take the apology?"

Makarov's eyes lit up with humor. "They overreacted quite a bit. It was the members of that minor dark guild that damaged the train. Still, they seem to believe it only happened because you were there."

"It did," Naruto agreed. "If we weren't there, they probably would have just robbed the passengers and then let the train pass unharmed."

"You two did the right thing," Makarov said with a sigh. It was easy to see that the Council still were not happy about the minor damages that the train sustained, despite the fact that Naruto had personally written a letter of apology.

"When is Natsu due back?" Mirajane suddenly asked.

"He's still desperate to find Igneel. There's no telling when he'll be back. I gave him a couple months of leave from the guild to search, so we should hear back from him in the next month," Makarov answered.

"Who is Natsu?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Natsu is the Salamander of Fairy Tail," Cana answered. "He's uses a Lost Magic known as Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. He is one of the strongest guys in our age group."

"He's a hot head," Gray commented from his seat near the bar.

"Damn it Gray, put some clothes on," Naruto said the instant he saw him. He had yet to figure out why the guy always seemed to end up in his boxers.

"Oh crap, how'd that happen?" Gray asked as he started searching for his clothes.

"Someone's running," Naruto suddenly said, looking towards the door.

Loke walked through the door, breathing heavily. "She's coming!"

Much to Naruto's confusion, everyone became very attentive and started behaving far more than normal.

Just as Loke took a seat, the doors opened and a woman began to walk into the building. Her upper body was clad in some kind of armor, despite the fact that she was wearing a blue skirt and black boots. Her most distinctive features were her long scarlet hair and her brown eyes, however.

"That's _her_," Cana muttered under her breath.

Naruto instantly remembered the last time she used such emphasis on that word. _So who is she?_

"Hello Master," she said as she stopped a few yards away.

"Hello Erza," Makarov said pleasantly. "Your job finished early, I take it?"

"Yes," she said, looking at Naruto. "And on the way back, I heard about a new member who is responsible for a destroyed train."

"I didn't destroy the train," Naruto said with a frown, though he realized immediately that he should have stayed quietly.

"Don't cause trouble. That's not what Fairy Tail's about," she said with annoyance in her voice.

"I thought Fairy Tail was a place for people with a penchant for destruction," Naruto commented in an off-handed manner.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gray slap his forehead with his right hand.

"You thought wrong," she said as she went to hit him over the head.

Her fist hit nothing but air as Naruto vanished in a flicker of leaves right before she made contact.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, standing behind her. "I'm pretty sure it's in the handbook."

"You don't know who I am, do you?" she asked almost too nicely.

"He's going to meet Titania's wrath if he keeps it up," one of the mages in the room whispered, though Naruto barely heard it.

"Should I?" he asked, doing his best to keep a straight face. He was starting to suspect that the girl in front of him was dangerous.

"I believe it's time for the newbie to learn some manners," she said balling her fists.

"Why would I want to fight you?" he asked, oblivious to who she was.

"Uh, Naruto… you need to be careful," Makarov said nervously. "That's Erza, the strongest girl in Fairy Tail."

"Maybe I'll fight her then," Naruto said, looking excited suddenly. "I haven't been pushed to my limits in a while. I'd love to see how strong I am compared to someone who others consider to be strong."

"Take it out back then," Makarov said with a sigh. "I can already tell your fight's going to be destructive."

"We'll see," Erza said as she walked back to the doors and left the building, obviously going around.

"How dangerous is she?" Naruto asked as he made his way to the doors.

"There are only three other than Master Makarov who might be stronger than her," Cana answered.

"Maybe that'll be four after I'm through," Naruto said as he walked outside of the building. Over his shoulder, he saw that just about everyone was starting to stand up and follow him.

_Either I'm going to show them how strong I am, or I'm going to look like a dumbass for agreeing to fight someone so tough._

Either way, he knew that he was about to be pushed to his limits for the first time since he appeared in Earth Land.

* * *

"I'll give you one chance to apologize for your words," Erza said as she stood across from Naruto. She was still wearing her standard armor and did not have any weapons out. "If you choose not to take up this chance, you will regret it."

"No thanks," Naruto said as he dropped into a taijutsu stance, surprising everyone except for Makarov and Cana, both of which knew about his fighting style.

"Very well then," she said as she popped her neck.

"You may begin," Makarov said as he stood on the sidelines along with every member of Fairy Tail in Magnolia at that moment.

Immediately, Erza dashed forward and threw a punch at Naruto's face.

Much to her surprise, he caught her fist with his right hand and kicked her in the side with his left leg.

He immediately jumped back, grimacing in pain. The armor was even stronger than he thought.

The simple fact that he was able to block her attack and counter it left many in the audience wondering how strong he was.

"You're fast," Erza commented as she stood unharmed by his kick. "I can't say much about your strength though."

"I can't say much about your speed or strength," Naruto said with a grin.

"He's going to regret saying that," Gray said with a groan.

Immediately, a long sword appeared in Erza's hand and she dashed towards him. As she reached him, she brought it down in a powerful arc.

Just before she reached him, Naruto touched the seal on his left wrist band twice, summoning two kunai. He took one in each hand and raised them above his head in a crossed position. The sword came to a complete stop as it met the kunai.

"So you can requip," Erza commented. "That explains why you didn't start using offensive spells against me when it started."

"I'm not the only one," Naruto said as he jumped back and threw the kunai in his left hand at her. Before she could react, it struck her in the left side of her chest, but it barely even nicked her armor.

Still… the spot he hit was alarming to her.

"That was aimed for my heart," she said with a frown. "Most mages don't go for killing blows."

"You're wearing armor," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Very well then," Erza said as light enveloped her.

"She's switching armor," Cana said as she leaned forward in anticipation.

_So she can requip weapons and armor? I definitely can't do switch clothes or armor with my abilities. Damn, Requip Magic is definitely better than I thought._

Naruto's jaw dropped as he saw the form she took on. She had a leopard-patterned chest armor and shoulder guard, in addition to a cloth that covered her left side from the waist to her knees and a pair of leopard ears on her head. She also appeared to have a tail. Her legs were covered by tall blue boots and her arms were covered by arm coverings of the same color. The most alarming thing for him was that she was essentially wearing a leopard print bra and black panties.

"If you're trying to make me faint, you're going to have to do better than that," Naruto said, thankful that his time editing Jiraiya's latest novel had built up his resistance to things like that.

Before he could process anything further, Erza moved forward.

The female knight that never held back, as she was appropriately called, switched her long sword to a short sword as she moved to attack him. Much to everyone's shock, even hers, the blade went through Naruto's stomach.

Worry was clear in her eyes as she saw what she had done. She had never meant to actually injure him so badly. He had displayed enough speed that she suspected that he could dodge it.

"So, he's using _that_," Cana suddenly said.

Before their very eyes, Naruto turned into a log.

"What kind of magic is this?" Erza pondered as she set the log down, put her foot down on it, and pulled her sword free.

"Catch this," Naruto said, drawing their attention to the top of the Fairy Tail building just as a giant shuriken appeared in his hands. With all of his strength, he hurled it at her.

"That won't work," she said calmly as she moved out of the way with ease. "My Flight Armor increases my speed."

"She's a tough opponent," Naruto said with a sigh. "I guess I'll have to do this another way."

With a chakra enhanced jump, he leapt down towards her with a fist pulled back. About halfway there, he exploded in a cloud to dust. In his place, Cana fell to the ground. She fell straight to the ground and did not appear to be in a fighting position at all.

Confused looks came across many of the faces. No one thought to look amongst the crowd for answers though.

"What are you doing out here?" Erza asked in confusion.

"Naruto must have used that Substitution spell of his to swap with me," she said as she rose to her feet and dusted herself off. "Seriously, that's a cheap tactic. He shouldn't do that just to make you lose sight of him."

Erza frowned even more and began to look around.

As soon as Erza turned her back on the girl, Cana's right fist lit up with blue energy that shocked the audience and she hit Erza square in the back, sending her flying away.

"How do you like my new technique," Cana said, but it was not Cana's voice that came out. It was Naruto's. "I call it the Chakra Hammer."

As soon as Erza looked at her attacker, she saw Cana disappear in a cloud of smoke. In her place was Naruto.

"Look to see if she's in the audience next time," Naruto said with a grin. Cana simply face-palmed at his words and actions.

"You can transform too?" Erza asked, shaking her head. "You're pretty good, even if you can only pull some pretty cheap tactics off."

"I haven't outnumbered you yet," Naruto pointed out, earning outright confusion from everyone. His hands formed his signature hand sign. At that time, no one knew about his signature technique, but that would change soon enough.

In an instant, a hundred identical copies of Naruto appeared around her.

"You can create tangible copies of yourself?" Erza asked, sounding impressed. It was starting to seem as though she had forgotten her initial purpose of fighting her.

"This is my favorite ability. They are called shadow clones. Each one has my abilities, but my power is divided evenly between them and me," Naruto said with a smile. In all honesty, he was explaining it because his comrades were around. He knew that he could not hide all of his abilities from them. He figured that if they knew he could use the technique, then he might as well explain it.

"You've put up a better fight than anyone else in my age group," Erza said suddenly. "You've earned some of my respect. However, this is where you lose."

"He did well," Makarov commented.

Naruto was thrown off by Erza and Makarov's words as though he had already lost, but he did not understand.

Erza was engulfed by light once again. In an instant, her arms and armor were replaced.

He was shocked by what he saw when the light faded. The details of the armor were hard to take in quickly, but it seemed to be a dress made of blades. In addition to that, her legs and arms were covered in plate armor. In each hand, she held a long sword. As if that was not menacing enough, she had a dozen swords floating around her.

He quickly came to the realization that Jiraiya would have liked the girl. Her armor just barely covered her breasts and she was incredibly dangerous. His pervert of a master had always loved girls like that for some strange reason.

"You've been holding back on me," Naruto commented.

"They like to say I can't hold back," Erza said as she looked at the real Naruto. "However, I do my best to hold back enough that I don't kill my opponents."

"I do too," Naruto said under his breath. He had no intention of going out any further than he had already done so though. Using the Nine-Tails' chakra was out of the question, as far as he was concerned. In addition to that, using the Rasengan against a comrade was just about as big of a taboo in his mind that he could imagine.

"I forfeit," Naruto said, dismissing the clones. It surprised everyone, seeing as he Erza had not even attacked, but his next words stopped all doubts. "A single hit will destroy one of those clones, no matter how minor of an injury as it would be normally. You win this time, Erza."

"Very well," Erza said as she suddenly changed back into her normal armor and her weapons disappeared. "Not many have the guts to stand up to me, and even fewer have the ability to last as long as you did. But the thing that makes you stand out the most, in my opinion, is that you know when to back down."

With that, she walked up to him, and then she hit him over the head, knocking him to the ground. "But if you mouth off to me again, I'll kick your ass. Now, I know you can take it."

Naruto groaned as he started to stand up. He could not help but hate that he had been outmatched by her, but that fight changed things in a way he had not expected.

He had proven to everyone that he could stand his ground against Fairy Tail's Titania fairly well, despite the fact that he was one of the youngest members of Fairy Tail.

* * *

Author's Note: And that's the chapter. I hope the fight was entertaining enough. It was fun to write and even more fun to imagine.

Just to clarify, Naruto isn't at Erza's level, but he is stronger than Natsu or Gray. Unlike mages, he is prone to sneak attacks and dirty fighting, which is one reason he didn't lose all that quickly against Erza.

Anyways, Natsu and Lucy will show up in Chapter 6, so there's only one more chapter until the canon storyline starts to kick off.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	5. Mount Hakobe

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Introduction Arc**

**5. Mount Hakobe**

Two weeks had passed since Naruto had fought Erza, and his defeat had only caused himself to push his limits further and further. He was determined to become stronger than the armor wearing mage no matter what. Still, it was no easy feat when he had no one who could teach him any more ninjutsu.

He had actually tried to learn to use Requip Magic with his chakra as a power source, but it had ended in failure, as expected. His only option was to work on his jutsu. Still, there had been one useful discovery from his attempts to learn to use Requip Magic.

Naruto had essentially learned to requip clothing, though he obviously had to do it through fuinjutsu.

It had come in handy for his current mission though.

The previous night, Macao Conbolt had invited him to go on a job to Mount Hakobe to deal with a problem that had been bothering the residents of a small town a little ways away from the mountain's base.

So in the end, he had gotten to use his special form of requip to put on a long black coat that he had bought just for the mission. Given that it was summer, he doubted that he would need the coat outside of the mission, but the mountain had a tendency to snow year round.

"So what exactly is the job?" Naruto asked as he walked up the winding path with Macao. His head had a light coat of snow atop it, though that was simple because he kept shaking it off after it built up too much.

"Sorry about making you wait outside the town while I talked to the mayor," Macao apologized.

"It's fine," Naruto said with a shrug. "It's still summer around the town."

"Right," Macao said as he cleared his throat. "Twenty Vulcans are causing them problems."

"What is a Vulcan?" Naruto asked curiously.

"A Vulcan is ferocious beast. It's kind of like a monkey, but it's probably twice as tall as you are. Its strength and intelligence are remarkable for a mere beast," Macao explained. "But the biggest thing is that it can use Take Over Magic. It survives by taking over the bodies of humans."

"Do they look like humans after they do it?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"No, their bodies return to normal right after they perform a Take Over," Macao answered. "We should find all twenty of them in a cave towards the top of the mountain."

"So we're going to be fighting twenty of these guys at one time?" Naruto asked. When his ally nodded, he whistled. "You must be pretty tough if you're willing to do a job like this."

"I would've done it by myself, but I'd rather split the money than risk my chances against twenty Vulcans," Macao said with a shrug. "This is the type of job Erza had no problem doing before she turned fifteen."

"Oh?" Naruto asked, obviously intrigued.

"When she was fifteen, Erza became an S-class mage. This type of job would be a walk in the park for her. Her Heaven's Wheel Armor, the same armor that she used at the end of your fight with her, is perfect for fighting against multiple enemies," Macao said with a sigh. "It's a bit depressing to know how much she's accomplished when I'm nearly twice her age."

"The new generation surpasses the older one," Naruto said with a grin. "So how much is this job even paying?"

"Two hundred thousand jewels," Macao answered. "It's a pretty good reward for such a simple task."

"Agreed," Naruto said. From the sounds of it, he would have the next month or two of rent paid up fairly easy.

"We're here," Macao whispered as he came to a stop.

Naruto looked around the corner and saw a large gave. With the snow blowing around, he could not see too clearly inside of it.

"Let's see if anyone's home," Naruto said as he slipped his left hand into the right sleeve of his jacket and withdrew a paper bomb from it. He then slipped his right hand into his left sleeve and removed a kunai. He immediately went to work, wrapping the paper bomb around the handle of the kunai.

"What are you doing?" Macao asked.

Without saying a word, Naruto stepped out from behind the corner and threw the kunai as hard as he could.

It landed right outside of the cave, and a large white beast that resembled a monkey came out to take a look. As soon as it reached the kunai, Naruto activated the paper bomb and it exploded.

"You're one of a kind," Macao said as he stepped around the corner and watched as fourteen Vulcans came out from the cave.

"We're surrounded, so it was pointless not to hurry," Naruto said as he jerked his thumb back, making Macao see the five Vulcans approaching them from behind. "I just heard them before we got here."

"I'll take them out," Macao said as he began to walk back to the path that they had taken to get up there.

"That's fine," Naruto said as he dashed to meet the fourteen Vulcans that were before him.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," he whispered, forming a shadow clone next to him. As he was running, it formed a Rasengan in his right hand and dispelled.

He slid to a stop as a Vulcan neared him, and he had to admit that he had underestimated its size. It threw its mammoth sized punch at him, but he simple side stepped it before moving forward and connecting the Rasengan with its stomach. It was sent flying back with incredible force.

Despite that, he saw that five Vulcans had surrounded him immediately afterwards. With their close proximity, it ruled out the Rasengan as a weapon. It was fatal when he used it to the full extent of its power, but it was best used against a single opponent.

"Taijutsu it is," he said as he dropped into a taijutsu stance.

The instant that he assumed the stance, he was attacked twice in quick succession. He was hit in the back by a monstrous hand and then slapped away by another one.

He landed uncomfortably in the snow, and he saw that all of the Vulcans were focused on him. One by one, they hit him, pushing him deeper and deeper into the snow.

_It's a shame I don't have any kind of long ranged attacks. If I did, this never would have happened._ As the attacks continued, he understood that he could not keep it up. _Screw it. I'll stop holding back._

Red chakra exploded from his body, sending them flying back. With the crimson cloak of a one-tailed fox, he rose from the snow. His eyes were slit like a fox's, but they were as red as blood. His stance was not longer that of a man. He stood on his legs and his hands as though he was an animal.

_I have to keep my anger under control. I have control of this form, but there's no way I can control my two-tailed state completely yet. It's a slippery slope when I get more than one tail._

Naruto moved forward with incredible speed and head butted one of the Vulcans with such force that it knocked it clean off the mountain. His tail spun in a circle in the way only a tail of pure energy could. It knocked all of the Vulcans around them onto their backs.

With the monsters downed, his tail wrapped around one of them and hurled it off the mountainside as though it was a small rock.

_It's definitely a powerful form. I hate relying on its power though._

Exhaling, Naruto got to work on the remaining ten Vulcans. Unlike the others, he did not simple hurl them off of the mountain. Instead, he killed them by causing physical damage, like snapped necks, broken ribs, and severed spinal cords.

Just as he killed the final one, Macao came in sight, and his eyes locked onto Naruto's form. He did not seem as alarmed as Naruto had expected though.

"Of course, I should have figured you had an ace up your sleeve," Macao said with a laugh. "How am I going to tell everyone that you took out more than me though?"

Naruto just shook his head as the fox cloak dissipated and he fell to his knees. Looking at his coat, he sighed. It had become ripped in the fight. Rising to his feet, he touched his left wrist band and sealed the coat away.

"I'm not used to using that," he said with a weak grin. "So how did you take yours out?"

"I threw them off of the mountain," Macao answered as a strand of purple fire came from his right hand. It caught onto Naruto's kunai and tossed it in the air, letting the former ninja catch it.

"That's some strange fire you've got there," Naruto commented.

"Says the guy who has that wolf-shaped energy around him when he gets serious?" Macao said with a grin.

"No," Naruto said, shaking his head. "It wasn't a wolf… it was a fox."

"Whatever you say, oh great Kitsune," Macao said with an elegant bow.

"Don't even start," Naruto said with a groan.

He had no idea that he would one day by known as Kitsune of Fairy Tail, much the same way Erza was Titania of Fairy Tail and Natsu was Salamander of Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Well, that could have gone better," Naruto said as he walked down the main street of Magnolia, headed towards the Fairy Tail base. He and Macao had just parted ways, and Naruto was one hundred fifty thousand jewels richer than he had been that morning.

It still made him laugh that it was supposed to be a three day job, but they had not hunted them down one at a time like most would. Their simplistic approach had made it go by far quicker than expected.

Unfortunately, they had gotten in a little trouble over their methods. Someone had tossed a Vulcan far enough away from the mountain that it crashed through the roof of someone's house. It seemed that it truly was impossible for Fairy Tail to accomplish a mission without collateral damage.

That did not frustrate Naruto as much as Macao's insistence that the commission for the job be split twenty five-seventy five. Naruto hated taking the majority of the commission just on the basis that he did more work. Macao had invited him along, after all. It was not all that fair in his opinion that he, as the guest, was paid more.

Still, he had learned that most in Fairy Tail were stubborn, so he had not tried too hard to dissuade Macao.

Naruto stopped just short of the Fairy Tail doors and lifted his hand chest-high with his palm up.

_First, you have rotation._

Chakra began to spin in his hand.

_Next, you have power._

The chakra flow grew stronger.

_Finally, you combine them._

In his hand, he held an imperfect Rasengan, similar to what he had attempted to use on Tsunade when he goaded her into a fight back when they first met.

_I need to truly master the Rasengan. If I could do that, I could use it almost as quick as I can punch. It's the only option I can see. What else could I do?_

"Something is weighing heavily upon your mind."

Naruto turned around and was surprised to see Makarov standing behind him.

"Come," Makarov said as he began to walk around the building. "Let us talk."

Though he was confused, Naruto did exactly as instructed.

When they reached the back of the building, Makarov spoke. "It's loud inside, and it will be until they all leave for the night. We can speak privately back here."

"Did she tell you about the Nine-Tails?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"That's the demon within you?" Makarov asked.

Naruto nodded. "I never told Porlyusica or you the whole story, so I might as well do it now. On the day I was born, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked my village. Its power was so great that it could cause tsunamis and earthquakes with a flick of its tails. Many of the shinobi of my village tried to fight it, but it was a losing battle… until _he_ came to the battle field."

"Who is that?" Makarov asked patiently.

"He was the fourth man to lead our village, the Fourth Hokage. It was said he was one of the greatest shinobi ever born, and he did the unthinkable. He defeated the Nine-Tails," Naruto said quietly. "The Third Hokage, the man revered as the God of Shinobi, told everyone that the Nine-Tails had been killed, but the truth is that it was sealed inside of me. A number of people found out before it was made a secret though, and most of those people weren't very nice to me growing up."

"They viewed you as a scapegoat," Makarov said with a frown.

"Yeah, they did," Naruto said with a nod. "But here's the thing. I didn't even know that it was sealed inside of me until I was twelve. I wasn't supposed to find out the way I did either. I was tricked by someone I trusted."

With that, Naruto began to tell the old mage the basics about his life from the Mizuki Incident to the mission to rescue Gaara from the Akatsuki.

No less than an hour and a half passed as he told the story, but the time never affected either of them.

"After I learned that I was in a new world, it terrified me, but I felt relieved too. Akatsuki can't come after me anymore, so it seems like it doesn't matter that it's inside my anymore. But then… I was forced to use some of its power in the latest job."

"I can see how that would worry you," Makarov said, still caught off guard by the realization that Naruto could use the Nine-Tails' power at will, even if only to an extent.

"It reminded me of something that worries me," Naruto said with a frown. "The seal that holds back the Nine-Tails is gradually weakening. It's such a gradual process that I'll be safe for a while, but if I don't figure out how to strengthen the seal, I'll be in trouble."

"Leave needless worries for another time," Makarov said quietly. "You'll figure out a way. You are a smart boy."

Naruto chuckled, not used to that compliment. He grew seriously quickly afterwards though. "How am I to become stronger than I currently am though? I cannot continue to rely on its power."

"You will never obtain the power you seek if that is what drives you," Makarov said as he looked at Naruto carefully. "Power does not come from the desire to be independent of others. It comes from the desire to protect others."

Memories of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Haku suddenly flashed to mind. They had said similar things. It seemed that he had forgotten all about it until his new leader said something.

"I think I understand, Master Makarov," Naruto said as he took a deep breath. "I think I know what I need to do now."

"That's good to hear," Makarov said as he turned away from Naruto. "Remember something about Fairy Tail. We are not just a group of mages that work together. We are a family. If you ever need help, you can always ask."

"I will," Naruto promised.

"Do fairies really have tails? Do they even exist? Like them, this place is an eternal mystery… a never ending adventure," Makarov said suddenly, confusing Naruto. "That is the meaning of our name, _Fairy Tail_. I wouldn't want you to go without knowing the name. After all, you've become a credit to our name since you've arrived in our lives."

With that, Makarov walked away.

His words would stay with Naruto for the rest of his life, however.

* * *

Author's Note: Wow, that's more chapters in one day than normal. I hope you guys have enjoyed them all. I can't guarantee this many in one day again.

But anyways, I do want to give a heads-up and possibly quell some doubts that you all may have.

Now, here's my attempt to quell some doubts. In an author's note on another story, I indicated that I wanted to do this cross-over without Naruto having Earth Land magic. However, I never indicated that in the author's notes within this story. I did say that he lacks the magic power that is required to use Earth Land magic, but I worded that in a way that gives me a loop hole. To be honest, I'm considering having him gain powers later on in addition to his chakra. I do have a few ideas on how I could pull it off.

Here's something to keep in mind though. If I do decide to let him gain magic, it won't be any types of Lost Magic or anything, so try not to get too excited.


	6. Natsu and Lucy

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story. This is definitely a fun story to write.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Introduction Arc**

**6. Natsu and Lucy**

It was a normal day for the mages of Fairy Tail.

As usual, Naruto Uzumaki was sitting at the bar with Cana Alberona. A bottle of beer was in his hand, though no one seemed to notice that he only drank a sip at a time.

It was the second of July, meaning that Naruto had officially been a member of Fairy Tail for a month and a day.

"So Naruto, when are you taking your first solo job?" Cana asked curiously. "Now that you've been in Fairy Tail for over a month, you can probably handle doing jobs on your own."

"I probably could," Naruto agreed as he took a bigger drink than normal. "I'll hold off on going on another job though. I don't need the money right now. You'd be amazed how little it costs to eat ramen for every meal."

"That can't be healthy for you," Cana commented.

"And that is?" Naruto asked, gesturing to the empty barrel of alcohol next to her.

"I have six years of practice. I can handle it," she said with a frown.

"I have at least thirteen years of practice eating ramen almost exclusively," Naruto said with a grin.

"You're hopeless," Cana said with a sigh.

"Thanks," Naruto said with a laugh. "I do try my best."

He looked around momentarily and did not see Makarov around anywhere, so he looked to his friend and spoke very quietly.

"Has she made any progress yet?"

Cana looked around for Makarov as well before she answered him. "Levy said she's getting closer. The notes on how you make them is speeding the progress up a bit, but she's trying to be careful. You made us promise to keep it a secret from everyone, after all."

Naruto nodded, pleased that she had kept it a secret thus far.

Unbeknownst to all but those three, Naruto had agreed to let Levy McGarden attempt to recreate paper bombs in a manner that normal mages could use them. He had given the stipulation that Levy could tell no one how to create them without his approval, and only Levy and Cana were allowed to use them after they were created.

His decision had been largely due to the fact that he wanted to protect his friends.

Coincidentally, he had only talked to Levy once since joining Fairy Tail, but he did not have to consider he a friend to still entrust her with the task of recreating paper bombs. She was a comrade and a friend of a friend. Plus, she was the only one that Cana knew who could possibly recreate them.

Suddenly, the doors opened, alerting everyone to a new arrival.

A young man of average height with spiky pink hair and black eyes entered the building. He wore a black waistcoat with gold trimming over his chest, short white trousers that went down to his knees, a wide black wristband on his left wrist, a pair of sandals, and a white scarf that resembled scales. He did not have a shirt on, and Naruto could see his Fairy Tail stamp on his right arm just below the shoulder.

Behind him was a young woman with brown eyes and blonde hair that was tied by ribbons of a variety of colors in a singular bunch to the right side of her head. She wore a blue and white sleeveless shirt, wrist bands, a blue skirt with a whip and some keys attached to it, and a pair of knee-high black high heeled shoes. As far as he could see, she did not have a Fairy Tail stamp on her, though he did not automatically assume she was not a member. It was not unheard of for a girl to have her stamp on one of her thighs of even on her back.

Only after they were inside did Naruto notice a small blue cat that was standing upright on its back two feet.

"I'm back!"

"Welcome back Natsu and Happy," Mirajane said as she looked over at them.

_Natsu is the one that they told me about. They say he can eat fire by transforming his lungs into that of a dragon's._

"You overdid it again," one of the mages at a table said. "I read about the Hargeon incident in the newspaper."

Suddenly, the one named Natsu kicked the speaker in the face.

"Bastard, that info you gave me about Salamander was fake," he said with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Now that Natsu is back, the place might get torn apart," Mirajane said with a hint of humor in her eyes.

As if on cue, the various mages, apart from Naruto, Cana, and Mirajane, began to fight.

"Wow, so this is Fairy Tail," the blonde at the doors said.

"Hey, did you say Natsu is back?" Gray said, suddenly running through the doors in just his boxers. "Let's finish our fight from last time."

"Gray, have you been walking around like that?" Cana asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Shit!" Gray just noticed his state of undress at the brunette's words.

"Why is Naruto the only guy around who isn't undignified?" she asked with a sigh.

Naruto nearly laughed at that, but his attention went to Elfman as he entered and stood behind the blonde at the door.

"Yapping in the middle of the day… you're not kids, you know," Elfman said, shaking his head. "Go fight and prove your manhood!"

"Out of the way!" Natsu and Gray shouted together as the both punched him away.

Before long, Loke became involved in the fight, Mirajane was knocked unconscious by a beer bottle, and part of the bar was damaged right next to Cana.

"This ends here," Cana said as she withdrew her cards.

"You're right," Naruto said as he rose to his hands and his hands were surrounded by blue chakra.

"I've had it," Gray said as he put his hands in position to use his Ice Make powers.

"Oh yeah!" Elfman exclaimed as his right arm appeared to be surrounded by rock.

"What a troublesome bunch," Loke said with a sigh as he prepared his ring magic.

"Come get me!" Natsu yelled as his hands caught on fire.

"They're going to fight with magic?" the blonde newcomer asked in shock.

"Oh, this is getting intense," Mirajane said with a small little chuckle.

"Cut it out you fools!"a huge black monster exclaimed as it appeared out of nowhere.

Immediately, everyone but Naruto and Natsu cut out their magic.

"Oh, I didn't notice you around, Master," Mirajane said, immediately causing Naruto to cut off his chakra and take his seat.

Ha! You guys are a bunch of scaredy cats! This match is my win!" Natsu exclaimed shortly before he was stepped on.

"A newcomer?" Makarov in his giant form asked, looking to the blonde girl that had showed up with Natsu.

"Yes," she answered nervously.

Immediately, Makarov shrunk down to his normal form. "Nice to meet you. I'm the Master of Fairy Tail, Makarov."

Before anyone could say anything else, Makarov jumped off the ground and landed on the railing of the second color. "You've done it again, fools," he said in annoyance. He held up a large stack of paper in his hand. "Look at all the complaints I've received from the Council."

His eyes went to Gray. "Gray, good job on sweeping out the smuggling organization. But you walked around town naked afterwards. Then, you ran away after stealing some underwear that had been hung to dry."

"Would it have been better if I just kept walking around naked?" Gray muttered.

Then his eyes went to Elfman. "Elfman! You had a mission to escort a VIP, but you assasulted him during the mission."

"He said men are all about education," Elfman said in defense.

"Cana Alberona, you drank fifteen bareels of alcohol during a mission and charged it to the council," Makarov said, looking at the Card Magic user.

She just shrugged.

"Loke, you flirted with a council member's daughter, and a certain talent agency charged us for damage compensation too," Makarov said with a sigh, but Loke just grinned.

"Naruto, you threw a Vulcan off a mountain and threw the roof of someone's house," Makarov said exasperated.

_Macao must have told him I was responsible. Well, I probably did do it, so that's fine._

"Natsu, you destroyed the Demon Thief Family, but you also destroyed seven other houses, leveled a historical clock tower in Tully Village, burned down a church if Freesia, damaged parts of Lupnus Castle, and eestroyed half of Hargeon's port," Makarov said with a frown. "And don't even get me started on the rest of you."

"And Erza says we aren't destructive?" Naruto muttered, making Cana suppress a laugh.

"Guys, the Council is angry at me all the time… but you can forget about the Council," Makarov said as he set the papers on fire and threw them at Natsu, who ate them. "Listen up. The power to ocvercome reason is born from reasoning. Magic is not a miracle. When the spirit flows within us and the spirit flow in nature connects, they will form an embodiment for the first time. You will need a strong mentality and a lot of concentration for that. I mean, pouring all of your soul into whatever you do is magic. If you keep worrying about the watchful eyes of the Council, your magic will never prosper. Don't fear the fools of the Council. Do whatever you think is right! That's the way of the Fairy Tail mages!"

The atmosphere immediately grew light and happy at that.

* * *

"So you want it there?" Mirajane asked.

"Yep," Lucy answered with her hand on the bar. A pink Fairy Tail stamp was placed on the back of her right hand at that.

It had been about half an hour since Natsu and Lucy had arrived, and things were mostly back to normal already.

Naturally, things never stayed normal long.

"So who's the blond guy?" Natsu asked, looking at Elfman.

Naruto sighed as the pink haired boy did not even try to be quiet about it.

"That's our new man, Naruto Uzumaki. He's a real man. He took two mages down by himself in his first job and then took down fifteen Vulcans by himself earlier this week. If that's not man enough, he fought Erza last time she stopped by. His manliness knows no bounds. He did better than you, Gray, or Loke," Elfman said with a grin.

_Why do I get the feeling that this is bad?_

"New guy, let's fight!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Master, I don't think that's a good idea," Mirajane said with a frown. "That would be destructive."

"Natsu will be Natsu," Makarov said with a sigh. "There's no stopping him if he wants to fight."

"It's Naruto, not new guy," he said with a frown. "And why would I want to fight you? If you lost to Erza without doing as well as I did, then you can't be as strong as I am."

"Now I'm fired up!" Natsu exclaimed as his hands were surrounded by fire.

"I guess I don't have a choice," Naruto said with a sigh. He liked fighting against strong opponents, but he did not think that the pink haired boy would be a challenge. "Let's go out back. I'm not about to fight a fire user inside a wooden building."

"Is it safe for them to fight?" Lucy asked Mirajane as Natsu and Naruto headed to the doors. "I saw Natsu fight in Hargeon. He's strong."

"Naruto isn't just strong. Unless you've seen him fight before, you're at a disadvantage going up against him," Cana interrupted. "Now, let's go and see them fight."

As with the Naruto and Erza fight, all of the present mages went to watch.

* * *

"Let's do this!" Natsu said as his hands caught fire and he dashed forward. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

His flaming right fist slammed into Naruto, only for him to be replaced with a log.

"I don't think Master Makarov said we could start yet," Naruto said a dozen yards behind him.

"You may begin," Makarov said in amusement.

"Right," Natsu said as he suddenly used Fire Dragon's Claw to propel him to Naruto, where he followed up with his Fire Dragon's Iron Fist again.

As with the last time, Naruto was replaced with a log.

"What kind of magic is that?" Lucy asked, surprised by the way he kept switching with logs.

"That's what he calls Substitution. Just wait until he uses substitutes himself with another person," Cana said with a grin.

"Damn you!" Natsu said, clearly infuriated. He slammed his fists together and began to inhale. Suddenly, he put both hands, balled in loose fists, in front of his mouth and expelled a powerful fireball at Naruto, who just frowned.

"I don't think he escaped my Fire Dragon's Roar," Natsu said with a grin. That grin did not last long though.

As soon as the flames cleared away, Naruto was standing still with his arms crossed. His one-tailed fox cloak was active.

_The last time I used this to protect myself from a fire blast was during my fight with Sasuke at the Valley of the End, wasn't it?_

He shook his head at the memory. "Are you done?"

"What in the world is that?" Cana asked with a frown.

"I told you about it, didn't I?" Macao asked as he watched with a grin. "That's the ace he keeps up his sleeve."

Makarov simply watched on in interest. It was the first time that he had ever seen Naruto use the Nine-Tails' chakra.

"My turn," Naruto said as he closed the distance and punched Natsu in the stomach. The single hit threw Natsu back twenty yards.

As soon as Natsu hit the ground, Naruto's chakra cloak dissipated. He had not wanted to use it against a comrade, even in a fight like that. However, he had put very little strength into his punch. Of course, he could shatter rock with his punches while he was in that state, so pulling his punches was necessary when fighting a comrade like that.

_Maybe I'll use it on Erza next time we fight. I'm sure she can take it. They say she has some pretty strong defensive armor._

Breaking away from that though, he walked up to Lucy and offered his hand out.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail," he said with a smile.

She was caught off guard by his sudden actions, but she took his hand and shook it.

"Thanks," she said. Taking her hand away from his, she could not help but ask a question or two. "How long have you been in Fairy Tail? I can't say I've ever heard of you. "And what kind of magic did you use?"

"A month," Naruto said before he started to walk away. "And you'll have to be more specific. I used two types, not counting the punch."

"The Kitsune of Fairy Tail… I can understand why you called him that in your story," Gray said, glancing at Macao. "In that form, he might have stood a chance against Erza."

"I doubt it," Makarov said as he began to walk off. "Naruto's strong, but Erza became an S-class mage when she was his age. Even if he could overpower her, he lacks her experience."

"Who is Erza?" Lucy asked.

She did not get her answer that day.

* * *

Author's Note: And that's the last chapter of the Introduction Arc. Naruto's addition to Team Natsu will occur next chapter, at the start of the Lullaby Arc. The Daybreak Arc will go exactly as in canon. Naruto won't be involved because Natsu has a grudge with him for taking him down with a single hit and making him feel foolish. After all, none of Natsu's attacks hit.

But anyways, I want to take the time to explain Naruto's relationship with the members of Fairy Tail right now. I have not explained it too thorougly at this time since doing so in the story would be tedious details with no conflict, but I can do it now well enough.

Naruto is actually only friends with Cana and Macao. He's on good terms with everyone else, Mirajane and Makarov more so than the others, but he's not actually friends with them.


	7. The Strongest Team

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Lullaby Arc**

**7. The Strongest Team**

Naruto sighed as looked at the bar in front of him. Five kunai were lying flat on top of the bar's surface, and they were most certainly a source of annoyance for Naruto.

He had been all too happy to use kunai freely in the time that he had been in Fairy Tail, and it had caused problems. His supply of kunai was at a grand total of five.

Contrary to what he had first thought, kunai were simply not made or sold in Fiore. At least, ones with enough quality to cut through a sheet of paper without dulling were not made or sold in Fiore.

They were not a weapon that was used by anyone other than himself. Sure, he could probably pay someone to make him some kunai, but even if he could, they would be of far less quality than the kunai he was used to using.

He desperately wished that he had taken better care of the ones he had before then, but they were all either broken or lost. The only good news was that he still had a little more than two dozen shuriken and a few fuma shuriken. Still, kunai were not just a weapon to be thrown. He used them mostly in physical combat, which he could not do with his shuriken.

Luckily, he had realized how much of a bind he was in a week earlier, which just so happened to be the day after he fought Natsu. His problem was clearly that he no longer had a close range weapon, so he had asked around to get a good idea as to what weapon he could replace it with.

In the end, he had gotten a jian, which was a double edged straight sword that was wielded one handed. The entire sword was two and a half feet long, and he had immediately worked on learning how to use it.

He would have asked Erza for some training since she was skilled with swords, but she was not around. He found a teacher in the end though. It turned out that Gray Fullbuster had skill with swords as well, though he only used swords made of ice, and the swords were more like traditional long swords. Still, he learned best by doing, so what he had learned thus far had come through sparring.

Naturally, Naruto had no intention of using his sword in combat for a while. He had been training for a week with it, and he was mostly self taught. The odds of him doing anything good with it at that point were unlikely.

The sound of Gray and Natsu talking suddenly caught Naruto's attention.

They started arguing after Lucy denied playing the big part in her most recent job, which had been about destroying a book called Daybreak. It seemed that Natsu wanted to become a team with her. Things going as they normally did, Loke had shopped up and invited Lucy to be in a team with him for the night.

The sheer corniness of the wording that Loke used made Naruto sigh and shake his head.

Still, something odd happened after that. Loke ran the other way after he saw Lucy's keys and called her a Celestial Spirit Mage.

_What is a Celestial Spirit Mage in the first place? I think the old woman mentioned it in her lessons, but I wasn't too attentive._

Suddenly, the doors swung open and Naruto saw Loke enter the guild building again.

Breathing heavily, he said, "Erza is back!"

Sighing, Naruto touched the seal on his left wrist band and sealed away his kunai. He then noticed that Natsu and Gray were acting like buddies for some strange reason.

Realization dawned on him immediately. _They must be scared of her. It makes sense._

The doors swung open again just after Loke took a seat and Erza Scarlet walked through into the room with a massive horn held up by her right hand.

"I'm back," she said, making Naruto roll his eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was back. "Is Master present at the moment?"

At that, Naruto remembered that Makarov had told him that morning that he had a meeting to go to, but Mirajane beat him to the punch.

"Welcome back," Mirajane said cheerfully. "Master is attending the regular meeting."

"I see…" Erza said with a frown as she set the horn down.

"Erza, what is that humungous thing?" one of the mages suddenly asked.

"Oh, you mean this?" Erza asked as she gestured to the horn. "The local townspeople decorated the horn of the demon that I subdued. It was so pretty that I brought it back as a souvenier."

Naruto held back a groan at that. She said it so casually that saying she bought it at the store would have felt more appropriate. _Well, this is an S-class mage._

"Will it be a nuisance?" Erza asked, looking at the mage with a curious expression. He immediately shook his head in response. "Anyways, I heard you've been causing trouble again. Even if Master forgives you, I won't."

"Who is she?" Lucy asked quietly, though Naruto heard her clearly.

"Cana, that's an inappropriate drinking posture," Erza said, drawing Naruto's attention to the way his friend was drinking a barrel of alcohol. "Vijeeter, if you want to dance, go outside. Wakaba, your cigarette butts are all over the floor. Nab, are you still hanging around the request board? Pick a job already. You guys give me so much trouble, but I won't say anything for today."

Naruto wanted to laugh at her antics, but he did not want to draw her attention.

"By the way, are Natsu and Gray here?" she suddenly asked.

"Hey Erza. We're being good to each other as always," Gray said nervously with an arm around Natsu's neck.

"Aye," Natsu said, just as nervously.

_Now he's like that talking cat of his._ Unlike most people, Naruto had never been surprised that Natsu had a talking cat. He was used to talking animals from his days as a ninja.

"I see… best friends do fight once in a while, but I do rather seeing you two being good to each other like that all the time," Erza said. "I'm happy to see that both of you are doing great."

Naruto turned on his barstool and looked at the three as they were talking.

"I actually have a favor to ask both of you. I heard something troubling at work. Usually I would consult Master about this, but it is too urgent to wait. I need your help. You'll come with me, right?" Erza asked.

Immediately, everyone was struck speechless by Erza's request, but the two boys nodded.

"I'll tell you the details on the way. We'll leave tomorrow, so be prepared," Erza said as she began to walk back to the doors.

"Those three together… it might very well be the strongest team in Fairy Tail," Mirajane said quietly.

"You jinxed it," Naruto said with a sigh as Erza came to a stop and looked back at the bar.

"I didn't see you there, Naruto," Erza said with a smile. "I'd like you to come too."

"If I do this… you owe me," Naruto said with a smile.

"Okay," Erza said as she picked her horn up and walked away.

Naruto, Natsu, and Gray all exchanged looks at that point. Natsu had a rivalry of sorts against both of them, while Naruto and Gray got along well.

_Well, this will be interesting._

* * *

Naruto sighed as he looked on at Natsu and Gray arguing.

"Why does she even need our help?" Natsu asked annoyed.

"How would I know? Besides, if she needs help, you'll just get in the way," Gray said.

"Then why don't you just leave me out of it? I don't want to go!" Natsu retorted.

"Fine, then stay! Erza will only kill you afterwards!" Gray replied.

"Geez, just shut up and stop arguing!" Lucy yelled at them.

"Why are you even here in the first place?" Natsu asked with a frown.

"Mira asked her to come," Naruto said as he glanced at the blonde next to him. "Though she probably wanted to come anyways."

"Aye," Happy agreed.

"Shut up you stupid cat," Lucy said as she shook her head.

"You got told," Naruto said as he patted Happy on the top of his head.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Erza said bringing their attention to the armored mage. She had a massive stack of luggage behind her that made everyone widen their eyes comically.

"You're just on time," Naruto said as he walked over to her. "Want me to take care of the luggage for you?" He showed her one of his wristbands as he said that.

"Go ahead. I've heard that you can seal away objects in a large number of pocket dimensions with those runes," Erza said before turning her attention to Lucy. "I believe I saw you in the guild yesterday. I don't believe we've met."

"I'm Lucy," she said as she stood up and actually gave a bow. "Mirajane asked me to accompany you."

"I'm Erza. It's nice to meet you. I believe I heard about you yesterday. You're the new member that defeated a gorilla mercenary… very promising," Erza said with a nod. For once, Lucy decided not to deny it. "This mission might be risky, but you should be able to handle it if you did so well on your last job."

"I don't know what our task is this time, but I'll only go with you on one condition," Natsu said surprising the armored mage.

"Say it," she said, intrigued.

"When we return, fight with me. I'm different from back then," Natsu said seriously.

"You'll just lose," Naruto interjected. "Didn't you learn when you challenged me? I beat you with a single hit, and Erza's even stronger than I am."

Erza blinked in surprise. "You two fought?"

"Yeah," Natsu said, looking away. "This guy… he's a monster. He was surrounded by this red energy that looked kind of like a fox. My fire didn't even affect him."

"He didn't use it against me," Erza said before she looked at Naruto. "I'm surprised to hear you held back against me."

"I can't use that form against an ally. It was different against Natsu since I couldn't dodge his attack. I'm durable in that form. I could probably shatter your armor with a single hit in that form too," Naruto said as he rolled up the scroll that contained Erza's luggage and sealed it away in his left wristband.

Erza frowned, but she looked to Natsu and nodded. "You've changed since we last fought, so I'll accept your request. We'll see how much you've grown." She then looked at Gray. "Do you wish to fight me too?"

"No," Gray said, shaking his head fiercely.

"Very well," she said as she faced Naruto again. "We'll need a rematch one day, but that's not what I wish to speak of right now. Tell me something. What is it that I will owe you?"

"I'm learning to use a sword," Naruto answered. "I could use someone who knows more about it than I do to give me some pointers."

Erza simply smiled before she led them to the train.

* * *

On the train, the seats were grouped in two. The seats were more like benches though, which meant that Natsu and Gray were sitting on one seat with Happy between them while Lucy and Erza sat together. Naruto was sitting across from them by himself. He was not about to complain though. He was sitting sideways with his back against the wall and his legs lying across the seat.

His attention suddenly went to Natsu as he traded seats with Erza. Apparently, he had motion sickness, which Erza dealt with by knocking him out.

"Hey Erza, what kind of magic do you use? I've only ever seen Natsu and Naruto's magic," Lucy suddenly said.

"It's beautiful," Happy said, clearly happy by the memories it brought.

"It is," Naruto said, reverently, earning an odd look from Erza.

"It's nothing special," Erza said dismissively. "I think Gray's magic is more beautiful."

As if on cue, Gray held his left hand out and struck his right fist down on it. Frost gathered around his hand before he opened his fist and removed it. In its place was an ice sculpture of the Fairy Tail emblem.

"It's ice magic," Gray said simply.

Realization dawned in Lucy's eyes. "He's fire and you're ice! No wonder you don't get along."

"Aye," Happy said.

"I never thought of that," Erza commented.

_I did. Mira came to the same conclusion._

Gray shrugged. "Anyways, what's going on? You asking for help doesn't happen often at all."

"Let me explain," Erza said as she grew thoughtful. "I was on my way back from work when I stopped by a bar where mages gather. A few individuals there caught my attention. They spoke of something called Lullaby and how they were having trouble taking possession of it because it was sealed."

"Is it some kind of sleep magic?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"I don't know," Erza said with a frown. "But since it is sealed, it probably contains some powerful magic."

"I don't get it. So you came across some folks who wanted to break the seal of some unknown magic. Maybe that's just their job… nothing special about it," Gray said.

"That's what I told myself as well, so I didn't give it another though. And then, I remembered a name that they mentioned… Eligor. He is the Ace of Eisenwald, a dark guild. He is known as the Grim Reaper. It's a nickname he earned because he only does assassination requests. The Council prohibits the acceptance of assassination requests, but Eisenwald was too greedy to deny the opportunity for more money. They were ousted from the Mage Guild League six years ago and have been a dark guild ever since."

"Weren't they punished too?" Lucy asked with a frown.

"Yeah, their master was arrested and they were ordered to disband. However, they, like most dark guilds, just ignored the order and continued operating. If only I had remembered the name Eligor back at the bar, I could have learned more," Erza said with a sigh as the train came to a stop and they began to get off of it.

"If it were just a few guys, you could handle them on your own. An entire guild, on the other hand…" Gray said as they got off at the train station.

"They got a hold of the magic called Lullaby, so they must be plotting something. I do not believe that we can overlook this matter, so I came for your help. We're going to take down Eisenwald," Erza said firmly.

"I'm in need of a work out," Naruto said with a grin.

"It does sound interesting," Gray said, clearly excited.

Lucy, on the otherhand, was sweating at the knowledge of what she had gotten herself into.

"So do you know where Eisenwald is?" Gray asked.

"No," Erza admitted. "We came to this town for that information."

"Where's Natsu?" Lucy asked, drawing everyone's attention to the lack of the dragon slayer.

"Happy, shouldn't you have noticed that first?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"Aye," Happy said sadly.

Looking back, they saw that the train had already taken off.

"This is my fault. I got caught up with talking. Hit me, will you?" Erza said, overreacting a bit in Naruto's opinion.

Still he was not about to pass up a good opportunity. He hit her on the top of the head with his fist, using just enough force that she could feel it. He was not about to use enough to hurt her. They were comrades, after all.

"Let's go stop the train," Naruto said once he got her attention.

"Good idea," Erza said as she hit her fist against her open hand. "Happy, go and find the emergency brake lever for the train while we go to get Natsu."

"Aye," Happy said as he grew wings and flew off.

"He can fly?" Naruto asked under his breath. "I can ignore the talking, but how can a cat fly?"

He broke from his thoughts as he saw that they had already run off without him.

By the time he reached them, they were getting in a magic four-wheeled vehicle with Erza taking the driver's seat.

"What have I got myself into," he muttered as he jumped through one of its open windows and landed inside next to Lucy.

They immediately took off after the train as it was slowing down. It had eventually come to a complete stop before taking off again. As soon as it took off again, Natsu jumped through a window and was caught by Gray.

Once they had Natsu, Erza came to a stop and everyone got out.

"You guys are horrible!" Natsu said once they were out of the vehicle. "How could you leave me behind?"

"I apologize," Erza said sincerely.

"I'm sorry," Lucy said, also sincere.

"Whatever," Naruto and Gray muttered.

""I'm happy that you're safe," Erza said as she hugged him, inadvertently slamming his face into her armor.

Breaking away from her, Natsu said, "How am I safe? A weirdo tried to pick a fight with me!"

"What… was it Eisenwald?" Erza asked, surprised. Suddenly, she punched Natsu. "Eisenwald is what we're after! How could you let them get away?"

""This is the first I've heard of it," Natsu muttered.

"Why weren't you listening to my story?" Erza demanded.

"She knows she knocked him out before she told us, right?" Naruto whispered, to which Gray nodded his head. "Just checking…"

"If he's on the rain, we need to chase him," Erza said as she walked to the front of the magic vehicle and attached the wristband that powered it to her right arm. "What did he look like?"

"Nothing special, but he carried an odd flute with him. It had a skull on it that had three eyes," Natsu said, shaking his head.

"That's weird," Naruto said.

"No… I thought it was a made-up story. This can't be real…" Lucy said, looking terrified.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"If that flute is what I think it is, it is the flute known as Lullaby. It's said to have a three-eyed skull on the end of it," she said, becoming even more fearful.

"What's so bad about it?" Gray asked.

"It's a cursed flute. It plays a song of eternal sleep… a song of death," she answered.

"You're saying that it's black magic capable of killing anyone who hears it?" Erza asked, alarmed.

"That's exactly right," Lucy said, looking down. "I never thought it was real, so it never crossed my mind until Natsu mentioned what it looked like."

"We have to go," Naruto said, growing serious. "It's up to us to catch up with Eisenwald before their leader… this Erigor… can play the flute. If we don't, many will die."

"Let's go then," Erza said as she took the driver's seat and everyone else got into the magic four-wheeled vehicle.

Their mission had just grown even more important.

* * *

Author's Note: And so the Lullaby Arc has begun. It was not any different than canon this chapter, really, but I'm not specifically trying to change things up too much. Only Naruto's influence directly changes anything, after all.

Anyways, we get to move on to some fighting very soon. It will definitely be fun.

Before I end this, I'm going to make a request. Please stop complaining because you think Naruto's too weak. Just trust in me to make Naruto constantly stay strong but without being overpowered. As it is, he's constantly getting stronger and learning new things, and it's just he beginning. If I make him too strong now, the fight between him and Erigor will be one-sided, which would be boring.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	8. Eisenwald

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Lullaby Arc**

**8. Eisenwald**

Naruto and the other Fairy Tail mages were standing outside of Oshibana Station, where people were being refused entry. It seemed that Eisenwald was inside and some soldiers had gone in after them, but against an entire Mage Guild, especially a Dark Guild, humans without magic did not stand a chance.

"Let's go in and deal with them," Erza said as she walked up to one of the train station employees that were not allowing anyone in. "We're from Fairy Tail. If the station has been overrun by the mages we believe it has been, then the soldiers won't be enough. Let us pass and we can handle it."

Naturally, they let her pass.

_It's probably because you don't mess with a girl wearing armor, especially when she's a mage._

He broke away from his thoughts as they entered the station.

After a few minutes, they came to a large room where the mages of Eisenwald were clearly waiting for them.

_I think I smell a trap. I'm sure Erza has realized it already too._

"I knew you'd come, Fairy Tail," Erigor said as he stood high above the other members of his guild.

"They're all here," Lucy said in shock.

"We've been waiting for you."

"You're Eligor, aren't you?" Erza asked with a frown.

"That's the armored girl from the other day… that explains how they found out about our plans," one of the Eisenwald mages said.

"Naturally," the scythe wielding mage replied.

"What do you intend to do?" Erza demanded. "Depending on your answer, I might have to make you pay for it."

"We just want to fool around," Erigor said casually. "We've got no job, so we're really bored."

Naturally, none of the Fairy Tail mages believed him, especially after his subordinates started laughing.

"Don't you understand what they have inside a train station?" he asked as he began to fly. Everyone looked shocked when he flew by a loudspeaker.

"Damn it, they're going to broadcast it," Gray said as he brought his hands together in preparation for his Ice Make abilities.

"Lucy, hurry up and wake him up," Naruto said as he glanced at the unconscious Natsu. She was still somewhat upset about Happy's statement that he was done because she was the third form of transportation that he had taken back to back.

"If we broadcast it, everyone in down will hear the Melody of Death," Erigor said with a sinister smile.

"That's indiscriminate mass murder!" Erza yelled.

_They must know a counter for it. If they play it here, their entire guild will hear it as well. That would kill them as well, so maybe it's possible to avoid it by using ear plugs on something. How are we going to get everyone some ear plugs though?_

"We are simply cleaning up those fools who live their lives enjoying their rights, not knowing that there are people who have lost their rights," Erigor said menacingly. "Living a live oblivious to the unfairness of the world is a sin, so the Grim Reaper must punish them."

"You think you know unfairness," Naruto said darkly as he stepped out in front of his comrades. "You know nothing of unfairness or pain. You have no idea what despair truly means. You will be stopped, one way or another, even if I have to completely destroy you to do so."

Everyone looked at Naruto at that, even Erigor.

"We shall see if you can stop me, but I doubt it," Erigor said as he made his escape from the room. "Destroy the flies."

"What a pity for you flies," one of the Eisenwald mages said as he slammed his hands to the ground. Shadows suddenly shot from him towards them.

_That's weird… he kind of looks like a Nara, and he can even use shadows._

Naruto did a back flip away from the attack just as Natsu started to stand up.

The shadow turned into a claw and tried to attack Lucy, but Natsu cut it in half with his Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon before it could hit her.

"That's the bastard that attacked me on the train," Natsu said with a grin. "Now we can fight on solid ground."

"Natsu, now is not the time," Erza said suddenly. "I want you and Gray to go after Erigor. Together, you have the power to handle the Grim Reaper. Naruto, Lucy, and I will handle these guys."

Though neither of them liked it, Natsu and Gray took off after Erigor. The shadow user disappeared in his shadows immediately and another mage of Eisenwald went after them as well.

"What can two girls do? Both of them are pretty gorgeous. It's too bad that we have to kill them," one of the Eisenwald mages said.

"How about we catch and sell them?" another Eisenwald mage added.

"Wait until we get to see the Fairies' Strip Show," a third Eisenwald mage said.

"How despicable," Erza said as she held out her right fist.

"Did they just say what I think they said?" Naruto asked as killing intent began to roll off of him, surprising Erza and Lucy. "Saying such a thing to my comrades in front of me… that's a bad idea."

"Agreed," Erza said as a sword appeared in her right hand.

"A sword just appeared in her hand! It must be a magic sword!" Lucy said in surprise.

"That's not so rare."

"We have magic swords of our own."

"We'll just strip that armor off of you."

The first two Eisenwald mages to speak did not annoy Naruto in the slightest. The last one, however, set him off.

Naruto appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye with a Rasengan in his right hand. He slammed it into the man's stomach and sent him flying against the wall, where he was knocked out.

_"Fairy Tail mages do not kill their foes." I can't say I like that rule, but I'll follow it, even if they're worthless pieces of shit like him._

The Eisenwald mages around him collapsed immediately afterwards, and Naruto looked over his shoulder. Erza was standing behind him with her sword in hand. It was easy to see what happened, seeing as how the men around him had shallow sword cuts on them.

"Let's see how you like long ranged magic."

Suddenly, a ball of magic shot at him. He had no plans of dodging it sense Erza was directly behind him, but his plans quickly changed.

"I can handle it," she said calmly.

Naruto did a back flip, landing ten feet behind her. He landed just in time to see her requip a spear and knock it back at the mage. Immediately after that, her spear disappeared and she requipped two swords. She began to move in with incredible speed, cutting down her enemies. An axe soon replaced her swords.

"How is she doing that?" Lucy asked in shock.

"That's Requip Magic," Naruto said as he kept his attention on the enemy. "She stores weapons and armor in a pocket dimension and can switch them at amazing speed. Most mages can't do it that fast. Doing it in battle when your emotions are at an all time high… it's an impressive feat."

"There's still so many of them left," Lucy said.

"Oh, she's going to do it," Naruto said as he took a step back. "Her switching weapons is nothing. What you're about to see… that's the truth strength of her magic."

"Aye," Happy agreed.

"So, she's using her Heavens' Wheel Armor," Naruto said when her armor was revealed. "Her specific Requip Magic is called The Knight. She switches into magic sets of armor that boost her powers. Heaven's Wheel Armor lets her control a large number of swords, like that."

"Circle Sword," Erza called out as she sent a dozen or so swords flying at her opponents, pinning them to the wall with enough force to knock them out.

"They don't stand a chance," Naruto said, shaking his head. "She is Titania of Fairy Tail, the strongest woman in Fairy Tail. She used too much magic in driving that thing earlier, and yet she still had enough to take them all out."

"All except one," Erza said as the final one took off running down the hall. "Lucy, can you go handle him?"

"Why not Naruto?" Lucy asked, but she took off running when Erza shot a dark look at her. Happy followed after her.

"Why did you send her instead of me?" Naruto asked her.

"Why didn't you help me?" Erza asked, though she sounded oddly calm about it.

"I would have gotten in the way," Naruto said with a frown. "I wasn't trying to get you hurt or anything. It's just that I know you could handle them."

"I know," Erza said with a small smile. "I just had to ask. I'm glad you stayed out of the way. It's easier to control that many swords at one time when I don't have to watch out for allies. Besides, your eyes were on me. I can tell when someone's looking at me. You were watching my back to make sure no one could get close, weren't you?"

"Partners watch each other's backs," Naruto said simply.

"And that's why I want you to come with me. Natsu and Gray are partners, even if they only act like it when they see me, and Lucy has partners of her own. Let's just say that even I need someone who can help me out. My magic power is weakened too much to handle Erigor, so I want you with me if we meet up with him."

"Fair enough," Naruto said.

"Come with me," Erza said as she looked off to one of the halls. "We need to get everyone out from right in front of the station. We can't fail, but it would be foolish to risk their lives on the off chance that Erigor exceeded."

"Right," Naruto said as he followed her.

* * *

Before too long, Naruto and Erza reached a balcony that they could see the crowd from. An employee of the train station was on the balcony already, but they just ignored him and Erza took the speakerphone that he held in his hands away from him.

"If you value your life, leave here immediately. The station is occupied by dark mages. One of them is ready to cast a spell that will kill everyone around here. Evacuate as far away as possible," Erza said into the speakerphone as clearly as possible.

Immediately, everyone ran the other way at the news in fear.

"Hey, why are you making people panic?" one of the employees of the train station asked.

"It's better that they panic than die," Naruto said.

"I spoke the truth," Erza said as she nodded. "Of course, we will do our best to prevent it, but we can't guarantee anyone's safety, even yours. Please evacuate as well."

As soon as they started to leave, Naruto frowned. The wind had suddenly started to pick up for some strange reason.

After a few minutes, he looked over his shoulder and saw that there was a wall of wind behind him and Erza. It seemed to be rotating around the train station.

"Well, if it isn't two flies outside," Erigor suddenly said as he floated about fifteen feet in the air, diagonally, above them. "I wanted to fight you, Titania of Fairy Tail, but I don't have the time to do that now."

He sent a blast of wind that hit them both and threw them through the wall of wind.

"What is this?" Erza asked with a frown.

"Don't even try to go through my wall of wind," Erigor said from the other side. "You can only enter it from the outside with harm. If you try it as it is, you'll just be shredded by the wind. If that happens, I can't very well fight you, now can I? I'd stay and chat some more, but I have to hurry. Some old geezers are waiting on me."

With that, he left and Erza started to try to put her hand through the wall. Naruto grabbed her and pulled her back immediately.

"If you don't believe him, then believe me," Naruto said as he removed his left wrist band and stuck his left hand through the wall. It was knocked out of the wall immediately, and his arm was covered in cuts.

"What are you doing? You shouldn't hurt yourself," Erza said, and it seemed that she was genuinely concerned for him.

"I think he's going to go after the Guild Masters at that meeting of theirs. We need to stop him," Naruto said seriously. "I'm going to go after him now. Find the others and try to figure out how to get out. Hopefully, I can stall him just long enough for you guys to show up."

"How are you going to get out?" Erza asked skeptically.

"I'm going to walk through it," Naruto said as red chakra began to leak out of him. "It'll hurt like hell, but it's the only option."

With that, he touched his thumb to one of his open cuts and drew a seal on the inside of his left arm. He proceeded to seal away his wrist bands inside of it. He did not want the seals getting shredded, after all.

"I hope you find some way to dispel this," he said as he entered his second tailed state.

He took a few deep breaths, trying to maintain control. He could fight off the fox's will in his one-tailed form easily enough, but it took far more effort to control his two-tailed form. His three-tailed form was impossible to use in combat since it took all of his concentration.

Still, he had no intention of fighting with the fox's chakra. It simply made him very durable and accelerated his healing rate.

With the fox's power filling him, he walked right through the barrier, grimacing as he did.

Once he was safely out of it, his allowed one of his tails to disappear. He only exited the form once his wounds were healed.

After he had his wrist bands back on and the seal written in blood wiped away, Naruto took off running towards Clover Town. He only knew its location on a map, but he was confident that he could reach it in time.

He doubted that Erigor could fly as fast or as long as he could run.

* * *

As it turned out, Naruto was right. He did catch up with Erigor.

Just as the Grim Reaper reached the bridge for the railroad tracks that went to Clover Town, Naruto had come near enough to summon a handful of shuriken and throw them at Erigor. They had all been blasted away and Erigor landed on the bridge a little ways away.

"You got out quickly," Erigor commented. "How did you do it? And where is Titania?"

"It's just me," Naruto said as he walked towards him. "I'll be more than enough to handle you."

"Oh yeah?" Erigor asked with a grin. He spun his scythe in his hands, sending a blast of wind at Naruto, but it did not even push me back.

"You caught me off guard last time, but now you can't blast me away," Naruto said as he continued the steady flow of chakra that kept his feet rooted to the ground.

"Really?" Erigor asked as he started sending blast after blast of wind magic.

No less than twenty blasts hit Naruto, and he held his position.

"That was a breeze," Naruto said, frowning at how corny his joke came out.

"I think I see," Erigor said as he gripped his scythe in both hands firmly. "You have some kind of strange magic that allows you to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Those wind blasts moved your upper body, but your feet didn't move at all."

"You're right," Naruto said with a smile. "Let's see how strong you really are."

With a chakra enhanced jump, Naruto leapt clear over Erigor's head and did a flip. As he landed, he threw a barrage of shuriken, which Erigor blasted away with his wind magic.

The second the wind blast passed, Naruto closed the distance between him and Erigor. Chakra surrounded his hand in an instant, reminiscent of a partial chakra cloak. He slammed his fist into Erigor's stomach, knocking him back with his Chakra Hammer.

A frown made its way to his face when Erigor caught his footing within a few seconds and raised an eyebrow. "You get past my defenses and you use the opportunity to hit me with such a weak attack… how stupid are you?"

_So, it wasn't just Erza._

The Chakra Hammer was supposed to amplify the strength of his punches to a similar extent that his chakra cloak did. It was actually similar to Natsu's Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon. However, the attack had barely affected Erza when he hit her from behind with it, and Erigor was affected even less. He might as well have used a regular punch.

_Maybe I missed something. Maybe the reason it's so weak isn't that I'm up against tough opponents. Could it be that I haven't fully figured out how to make it do what I want?_

He was broken from his thoughts as Erigor attempted to decapitate him with a swing of his scythe.

_I think I'm going to have to use the fox's chakra again. Damn it… why can't I become strong enough to do this on my own?_

Naruto did a backflip and landed in a defensive position. He took a deep breath, prepared to draw on the fox's chakra and fight off his will.

_"Don't rely on its chakra. You don't need borrowed power. Relying on it… that's what is keeping you from becoming strong. Face your enemy with your own power. I believe in you."_

Naruto's eyes widened as the voice that he had never heard before resounded in his head. It was clearly a male voice, but it was not from a memory. He was absolutely sure that he had never heard it before.

"I think I'm going to have to do this the hard way," Naruto said as he summoned a kunai from his left wristband and a paper bomb from his right wristband. He quickly attached the paper bomb to the kunai and threw it. As soon as Erigor tried knock it away with some wind magic, Naruto detonated it.

With the paper bomb forcing Erigor to lose sight of Naruto, he performed a feat that he had never done before.

Naruto emerged from the smoke that resulted from the paper bomb with a large orb of spiraling chakra in his right hand. He had successfully created a Giant Rasengan with a single hand.

As he emerged from the smoke, he brought his strongest jutsu towards Erigor's stomach with the intention of ending the fight in a single blow.

Unfortunately, Erigor had expected Naruto to attack in such a way. He jumped back and swung his scythe down on top of the Giant Rasengan.

The power of the Giant Rasengan exceeded that or Erigor's scythe. The blade of the scythe shattered and the staff part of it broke into four pieces.

_Well, it wasn't all for nothing, at least._

Before Naruto could even consider his next attack, Erigor shot a blast of wind from his right hand and sent him flying back.

"So you have to consciously use your magic to keep your footing. That's why my attack back at the train station knocked you through the wind wall," Erigor said as he tossed part of his staff down in the ravine that the bridge was built over. "Between that power of yours and that strange magic ball, you had the potential to be a strong opponent. Too bad you have to die."

With that, he hit Naruto with a blast of air that knocked him off the bridge.

"Chakra Hammer!" Naruto yelled as he slammed his right fist into Erigor's back. Unlike last time, it sent Erigor flying through the air.

_So, if I increase the amount of chakra I put into my fist and then compress it, its power increases. I guess the answer has been in the Rasengan the entire time._

"How did you get behind me? I knocked you off," Erigor asked as he rose to his feet with a frown.

"You never knocked me off," Naruto said as his hands became covered in visible chakra.

"You must have illusion magic," Erigor said as he began to move his hands through an intricate set of motions.

"Let's go with that," Naruto said. He was not about to reveal that he had performed a substitution with a shadow clone before he was hit by Erigor's wind magic.

"Say good night. Storm Bringer," Erigor said as he launched an incredibly powerful whirlwind that threw Naruto back, despite the fact that he used chakra to keep his footing. "I'm a master of wind magic. You'll never beat me."

Naruto slowly rose to his feet. "Wow, I'm winded," he said with a grin.

"It seems I underestimated how durable you are. I will have to show you how powerful I can really be, so I won't hold anything back," Erigor said as he began to fly. Wind began to rush towards him, spinning around him as it came. Eventually, the wind conformed in a way that it was covering his body like a suit of armor would. "This is my Storm Mail."

"Giant Rasengan," Naruto said as he once again formed his strongest variation of the Rasengan in a single hand. He leapt towards Erigor and slammed it into the mage's stomach, but before his eyes, it deteriorated. Once it was gone, Erigor knocked him away with his hand.

"How did you do that?" Naruto asked as he breathed hard.

"Your technique is in constant motion. If it comes to a stop, it fades away. Mine words the same way, but mine is simply far stronger than yours," Erigor said.

"You're pretty cocky," Naruto said as he rose to his feet.

_I only have one chance to finish this. I'll have to break his Storm Mail with my next hit. I might be able to do it with my Chakra Hammer, but I think I have a better idea._

Naruto touched the seal on his left wristband and his jian appeared in his right hand.

"You aren't serious, are you?" Erigor asked with a laugh. "A sword won't do anything against my Storm Mail."

"Compress my chakra around the sword," Naruto muttered as he felt his chakra flow into the sword and compress around the blade. It started to glow a pale blue at that. "Swing it at the enemy and push all the chakra I can through it."

Naruto leapt towards Erigor and brought the jian in a swift horizontal arc. Just before it made contact with the Storm Mail, he increased the flow of chakra to the sword to approximately ten times more chakra than the sword had flowing through it initially. As the blade made contact with the Storm Mail, chakra exploded from it. The explosion of chakra left a relatively large hole in the air based armor.

Using the hole to his advantage, Naruto left a shallow slice across Erigor's chest. The Storm Mail repaired itself before he could do anymore than that, much to his annoyance.

"That kind of hurt," Erigor said.

The mocking tone in his voice made Naruto's eyes narrow in anger. It seemed like that was just no way to get through the armor.

"There's a way," Naruto said as he did a backflip away. He shifted his stance so that he was holding his sword as though he was going to draw it from his hip. A placed his left hand onto the back of his right hand, and he began to compress the chakra.

Thoughts of a day long passed surfaced at the sign that his hands formed.

_"I'm going to ask a bonus question now. Write your answer at the bottom of your test. If you get it right, you'll be awarded ten bonus points," Iruka Umino said as he stood at the front of his classroom at the Ninja Academy. "What is the dog hand sign primarily used for?"_

_Naruto frowned. It sounded like a trick question to him. Everyone knew that hand signs let a ninja use jutsu. There was no point in specifying a specific one._

_Naturally, he simply wrote "performing ninjutsu" as his answer._

_At the end of class, Iruka said, "You may all go… except for you, Naruto."_

_Once everyone was gone, Iruka sighed and asked, "Why did you put that answer for the bonus question?"_

_"It's true!" Naruto exclaimed. "I get bonus points, right?"_

_"No," Iruka said, shaking his head. "It wasn't a trick question, and you're the only one who gave an answer like that. The answer is simple. The dog hand sign is primarily used for wind jutsu, just like tiger is for fire jutsu and snake is for earth jutsu. I went over this in class last week."_

_Naruto just shrugged and left the classroom without saying another word. He knew he would never need to know that._

"I was stupid," Naruto said with a chuckle as he took his eyes away from the dog hand sign that he had formed unintentionally. "Well, let's see if I can cut that armor with some wind of my own."

His eyes narrowed as he concentrated on the compressed chakra that surrounded the blade. With his eyes on Erigor, he shapped the compressed chakra to match with the design of the blade completely. As a result, he made his chakra sharp. He had no idea how close he was to figuring how Nature Manipulation, but what he figured out instead was a feat in itself.

He had created a wind jutsu without understanding Nature Manipulation.

"I don't have a name for this yet, so here we go!" Naruto yelled as he swung the blade from where he was standing and pushed the chakra out of the blade forcibly.

Suddenly, a blade of wind was released from the blade and hit a shocker Erigor. His Storm Mail was cut in half, and he was sporting a long slash from his knee to shoulder.

Before he could do anything else, Naruto sealed the jian away inside his wrist band and leapt at Erigor. "Chakra Hammer!" he yelled as he hit the Grim Reaper in the stomach with his chakra covered fist. It sent Erigor flying twenty feet away, where he hit the ground and rolled away unconscious.

Naruto collapsed to the ground at that point. He was tired, but he had defeated the strongest mage of a Dark Guild by himself.

Looking in the direction opposite of Clover Town, he saw a magic four-wheeler headed his way with Erza driving. She looked tired, even from that distance.

"She's probably used too much energy," he said with a smile as he waved at them.

In no time, they came to a stop and the rest of his team got out.

"I figured you would've flown on ahead with Happy," Naruto said looking at Natsu.

"He tried, but I told him that you weren't trying to beat him. You were supposed to stall him," Erza said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not good at stalling," Naruto said with a grin.

"I see that," Erza said as she walked over to him and crouched down. She set her armored hand on top of his head and patted it a few times. "You're getting strong. Not t many in Fairy Tail could single handedly beat Erigor."

"It gives Fairy Tail a bad name when you just barely win though," Gray said with a barely suppressed smile.

"Don't forget that I walked through the wind wall, ran her, and then fought Erigor," Naruto said with a grin.

"Why didn't you just _borrow_ a magic four-wheeler like we did?" Lucy asked, making Naruto realize that the one they drove there was not the same one that they had rented.

"The people of my homeland have a unique power source. It's not the same as the magic power you guys have. That's why my abilities are different than yours," Naruto said with a sigh. "Master told me that it's too different to be used in devices that are powered by normal magic power."

"Impressive," Erza said, but the look in her eyes did not strike Naruto as her being impressed. It struck him as her being intrigued. She soon looked away and towards the magic flute that was on the ground a few yards away from Erigor. "Well, we're almost at Clover, so let's go and visit Master. We need to report everything and hand over the flute to Master."

As soon as she said that, the magic four-wheeler drove around them and the guy that resembled a Nara grabbed the flute. He then drove off, but not before saying something. "You fools! Now I can carry out our plans!"

"You left a dark mage alone in the magic four-wheeler?" Naruto asked in disbelief. "Not even I'm that stupid."

Everyone, even Natsu and Erza, looked embarrassed at that.

"We need to go after him now," Naruto said seriously. "Come on. We can't let him play Lullaby where the old man can hear it."

With that, Naruto attempted to run forward, but he fell to the ground before he could.

"Happy, carry him," Natsu said as he looked down at Naruto. "We're from the same guild, so we can't leave him behind, but we can't afford to slow down either."

"Aye," Happy said as he grabbed Naruto and began to fly towards Clover with him as Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Lucy followed on foot.

"That was a nice thing you did for a guy you don't like," Gray commented.

"We might not be friends, but we're both mages of Fairy Tail," Natsu said as he ran with all of his speed.

"It's more than that," Erza said as she ran a little faster. "He really cares about saving the Master. He's a good guy."

A smile made its way to Naruto's face as he listened to their words with his eyes closed.

_This has to be the first time in a while that I've gotten this worn out from fighting._

At that moment, he wished that he had been able to get a bit more help though. As worn out as he was, he did not know if he would be able to fight the shadow user when they caught up to him.

_At least I have people I can depend on._

* * *

Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.

To answer a few questions that may come up, let me explain that the Giant Rasengan is just the dubbed name for the Odama Rasengan. I don't use the Japanese names of jutsu unless I think they sound stupid in the dubbed convention. The main example is the dubbed name of the Body Flicker Technique. It's called the Teleporation Jutsu in the dubbed anime, but it's not a teleporation jutsu.

Also, Naruto was so weakened at the end of the chapter because he used the two-tailed chakra cloak, ran at least ten miles, and then fought a guy who was fairly strong. At least with the canon fight, Happy flew Natsu there and his fire actually allowed him to beat Erigor. As you noticed, Naruto did not use the Nine-Tails during the fight either.

Because of all the comments about Naruto's choice of sword, I'll confess that I've always liked the jian since I found out about it through Avatar: the Last Airbender. However, it is just one sword that Naruto will use. The polls that I like putting up actually reveal an extent of my plans to those who pay attention.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing.


	9. Lullaby Awakened

Author's Note: I apologize in advance. This is a short chapter. I screwed up with my planning, thinking it would have taken longer to go over the rest of this arc, but it seems that I should have ended Chapter 8 sooner than I did and added the end of Naruto's fight with Erigor to the start of this chapter. Still, I guess it doesn't matter if this one's too short since the last one was nearly twice my target length.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Lullaby Arc**

**9. Lullaby Awakened**

Happy dropped Naruto off moments before the others got to him. As they did, Lucy helped him walk with his left arm slung across her shoulders.

They came upon the sight of the shadow user with Lullaby in his hands, alongside Makarov. They tried to scream out a warning, but an overweight bald man in a dress showed up in front of them just before they could do so.

"Shhh!" he said, immediately stopping them from saying anything. "The best part is coming up. Just watch." He looked them over and smiled. "You guys are cute."

"Who is he?" Lucy asked, obviously freaked out by the middle-aged man in a dress.

"The Master of Blue Pegasus, Bob," Erza answered with a frown. The frown only deepened when he addressed her.

"My, you sure have grown up, Erza," Bob said.

"What's going on? Hurry up already." Makarov said impatiently.

"No!" Erza exclaimed, but her words seemed to be lost in the wind.

"Just stay quiet. This should be interesting." Goldmine, another Master, said as he appeared.

"Now," Makarov said. "Nothing will change if you do. Weaklings will stay weak forever, but weakness if not evil. Human beings are weak creatures to begin with. Alone, you feel nothing but insecurity. That's why we form guilds. That's why we have friends. We walk together in order to live a strong life. The clumbsy ones will run into more walls than the others, and it may also take them longer to get there. If you believe in tomorrow and put yourself out there, you can naturally obtain your strength. That's how you'll be able to smile and live strong." As if an afterthought, he added, "Without having to depend on such a flute, of course.

The man dropped the flute and bowed to the ground. "I admit my loss."

Immediately after, Erza, Natsu, and Gray emerged happy to see Makarov alive, while Lucy helped Naruto walked over.

"Why are you five here?" Makarov asked in shock.

"You're amazing! Your words deeply touched me," Erza said as she gave him a hug.

"You're incredible!" Natsu exclaimed.

"You need to see a doctor," Lucy said to the shadow user as Naruto removed his arm from her shoulders, no longer needing her support to walk.

"Don't know what's going on, but you're cute too," Bob said, looking at the shadow user.

"You mages have no guts," the flue suddenly said, shocking everyone. "I can't hold it any longer. I'll just eat you all myself." Smoke began to leak out of its mouth at that point.

"The flute talked!" Lucy exclaimed in shock.

"The smoke is forming something!" Happy said.

As the smoke cleared away, a massive demon was in its place. "Let me consume your pitiful souls!"

"What's going on?" Erza asked, shocked.

"It's a demon from the Book of Zeref," Goldmine answered as he looked at it in fear.

"I'm starving to death, so I'm going to eat your souls!" Lullaby said in a demonic voice.

"Souls are edible?" Natsu asked, somehow taking the time to be puzzled over such a thing.

"How would I know?" Gray asked, astounded by his rival's idiocy.

"How did a demon come out of a flute?" Lucy asked, puzzled by a far more relevant question.

"It's a living magic… Zeref's magic," Goldmine said with a frown.

"Then it's an enemy that needs to be finished off," Naruto said as he warily assumed a fighting stance.

"Whose soul shall I devour first," Lullaby asked. "I know! All of yours!"

Before it could do anything, Erza used Requip Magic to put on her Heaven's Wheel Armor and then she charged alongside Natsu and Gray to fight the demon.

Immediately, Erza sliced up one of its legs, Natsu hit in the head with an Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon, and Gray used Ice Make: Shield to defend the spectators from an attack.

"Ice Make: Ice Lance," Gray said as a dozen curving spikes of ice shot at the demon, hitting him.

"I'm going to help," Naruto said as he felt entered his initial jinchuriki form and dashed forward. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu," he whispered. Suddenly, three hundred shadow clones appeared and each one formed a Rasengan while Naruto slammed his fists together.

"Fox Demon's Breath," Naruto said before he began to inhale. He put his fists in front of his mouth and began to exhale red chakra from his mouth similar to how Natsu blew fire with Fire Dragon's Roar.

The demon's legs appeared to be melting where Naruto's new attack hit them.

As it had trouble standing all the way up, Naruto's clones jumped and used their attacks on it. Once each clone used its Rasengan, they dispelled.

After the cloud of smoke disappeared, the demon was revealed to be covered in three hundred small, round holes. The attack had clearly injured it a great deal, but it had not finished it off.

_Only a demon could have withstood three hundred clones hitting it with a Rasengan._

"We can handle it from here," Erza said as her armor switched to a mostly black type of armor with wings. She flew at it and hit it with a single blow that caused tremendous damage.

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame," Natsu exclaimed as he hit Lullaby in the face with a powerful fire strike using both hands.

"Ice Make: Ice Lance," Gray said as even more spikes than last time shot at Lullaby.

Completely and utterly devastated by the barrage of magic, Lullaby collapsed and fell on top of the building where the Masters had previously been having their meeting prior to coming out to watch the fight.

"This is amazing," one of the Masters said. "They defeated Zeref's demon so quickly…."

"So this is Fairy Tail's strongest team," Goldmine said thoughtfully as he looked at Naruto, Natsu, Gray, and Erza.

"What do you think? Aren't they great?" Makarov asked with a big grin.

"They're the best," Lucy said with a smile.

"Now, you need to go see a doctor," Bob said as he approached the shadow user.

"Goodness, I don't really know why this happened, but we owe Fairy Tail," Goldmine said.

"Don't worry about it," Makarov said with a nervous chuckle.

Suddenly, the Guild Masters turned their attention to the crumbled ruins of their destroyed meeting hall.

"What… how could this be?" one of the Masters asked in shock.

All at the same time, realization dawned in their eyes and they looked at the members of Fairy Tail as they were doing their best to get away without running full out.

"Get them!" one of the Masters said, causing all of the members of Fairy Tail to run as fast as they could.

"I'm sorry for disgracing you, Master," Erza said as she looked ashamed while running.

"It's okay," Makarov said, not appearing to be upset in the least. "I doubt they'll invite me next time though."

"I thought you couldn't run anymore?" Lucy asked as she saw that Naruto was running faster than any of them.

"I'm not sticking around the big guy in the dress," Naruto said as he started to run even faster, prompting everyone to laugh.

* * *

It was the day after the defeat of Zeref's demon, Lullaby.

Naturally such a situation could not pass without a group of ten individuals meeting. That group of individuals was the Council. They were essentially the governing body of ten percent of the country, the mages of Fiore. The Council clearly had to meet to discuss current events because of how major of a situation it had been. The entire Eisenwald situation was definitely not a minor thing, no matter how quickly it was dealt with.

As always, Fairy Tail was an annoyance in the back of at least six of the members' minds.

Sitting in the center of the table was the resealed Lullaby in its flute form. Now that it was with the Council, they could put it away somewhere that it would never be used again.

"There are still tons of Dark Guilds out there," one member of the Council said.

"We should just take them out altogether then," another member of the Council suggested.

"How do you propose we do that?" Siegrain asked curiously. By the lack of response, he could tell that no one knew the answer to that question. There were simply too many Dark Guilds out there, and some of them were so powerful that only Phantom Lord or Fairy Tail had the power to defeat them. The only other option would have been an alliance between guilds.

"It's intolerable to think that anyone would dare use Zeref's magic again," another member of the Council said, changing the subject.

"First of all, how could they have obtained such magic easily?" a fourth member of the Council asked with a frown. Once again, no answer was forthcoming.

"What matters in the grand scheme of things is that Fairy Tail, the one guild that we have all considered to be a thorn in our sides, showed up and saved the day," Siegrain said, drawing their attention.

"They took down on guild, and Lullaby, with only five mages," Ultear said, clearly impressed.

None of the other members of the Council were too happy at that thought.

"I can understand why you don't want to admit the truth, but that's how it is," Siegrain said, shaking his head. "If the Guild Masters were killed by Lullaby, things would've been much worse. Some of us would have certainly lost our heads."

"Are you insinuating that it was our fault?" another Council member asked in shock. "That's out of the question. The problem is their reckless behavior."

"They really should be thanked for everything they've done," Siegrain said, making all but Ultear frown. The thought of thanking them for anything was quite an unpleasant thought for most of them.

"They caused damage to Oshibana Station and destroyed the building where the Guild League meets," another member argued. "Plus, we've had two reports filed against them in regards to magic four-wheelers. They rented one that ended up being destroyed and stole another."

"That's Fairy Tail for you," Siegrain said with a shrug. "It would be boring without them around."

It seemed that it was at least the hundredth time that he had made that statement, and he appeared to believe it as much as always.

As the meeting continued on, he exchanged a look with Ultear.

The look meant on clear thing to the both of them. They needed to talk.

* * *

"What do you need?" Ultear asked as she stood in one of the various rooms of the Council's headquarters. With her every word, she sounded more and more serious, not doubting for a second that Siegrain had something important to talk about.

"What have you heard of the new member of Fairy Tail, the blond haired boy?" Siegrain asked.

"Nothing," Ultear replied with a frown. "He seems of little consequence compared to Titania and Salamander."

Siegrain nodded. "He seems that way, but I don't believe that he's of little consequence to anyone. I heard what happened from some of the Guild Masters that were present. Fairy Tail's second newest member is a fifteen year old boy with blond hair and blue eyes. He appears to have three whisker-like marks on each cheek, and he does not look native to Fiore at all. In fact, there are no records of his existence prior to him joining Fairy Tail."

"How is that possible?" Ultear asked with a frown. To get into Fiore and join a Mage Guild without any records of his existence… it was suspicious in the least.

"It's not unheard of," Siegrain said as he shook his head. "One of their S-class mages, Mystogan, was almost the same exact way. There are only records of him a year before he joined Fairy Tail."

"Could it be connected?" Ultear asked.

"Maybe," Siegrain said as he shrugged his shoulders. "But you still haven't heard the alarming part."

"Oh?" Ultear asked, intrigued. Siegrain did not call things alarming without good reason.

"He can create at least three hundred tangible clones of himself that are capable of using magic," Siegrain said, smiling at the expression on her face. "Plus, he can breathe out an unusual type of energy. Because Lullaby reverted to a flute upon defeat, I'm unsure of what the energy did, but they say that it was capable of melting a demon's flesh."

"Fire?" Ultear asked with a frown. The abilities he was speaking of were unnatural, and she had never heard of any of them.

"No," Siegrain said as he began to walk to the door. "It was described as being something like a mist of crimson energy. One of the Guild Masters described it as feeling evil, even from afar."

"Magic that feels even in the presence of one of Zeref's demons?" Ultear asked with a frown. "That's… unheard of."

"Exactly," Siegrain said as he reached for the door handle. "We will have to assess the danger he presents when we can get around to it."

"Understood," Ultear said stiffly as Siegrain departed.

_Hades will be most interested in hearing of this boy… but it will have to wait until I know more about him._

With that, she left the room.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

This has been a blast to write, and I'm far from being out of steam.

Anyways, next chapter will be titled Natsu vs Erza, just like the anime episode and manga chapter. What can I say? I enjoy manipulating canon events to bring Naruto and Erza closer.


	10. Natsu vs Erza

Author's Note: I've had it pointed out that Naruto should have been able to defeat canon Lullaby with three hundred Rasengans by himself. I actually forgot to explain why he didn't succeed in defeating Lullaby by himself. Simply put, I inflated Lullaby's strength a bit. I cannot fathom how Lullaby, a demon created by the same man who created Deliora, was defeated so easily in the canon storyline. Hope that explains it.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Black Phoenix Arc**

**10. Natsu vs Erza**

It was just a little after noon the day after Lullaby was defeated. It was not exactly a normal day for Fairy Tail though.

A crowd was already gathering in front of their base as everyone prepared to watch the fight between Natsu and Erza. Erza still was not present yet, but it was not to begin for another thirty minutes still.

No one actually knew where Erza was at that moment. She had only said that she had an errand to run that morning and had left the base.

In fact, Erza had come to be standing in the poor part of town. It was composed of a few blocks of apartment buildings with an occasional house, but the houses generally looked run down. That was not to say that the apartment buildings did not look run down as well. They were simple less run down.

_Naruto lives here?_ The prospect brought a frown to her face. The thought of him living in such a place just did not sit well with her. She knew that he was not exactly rich, but he had done enough jobs that he should have easily been able to afford a better place. He had been part of the guild even longer than Lucy, and apparently she had a much nicer place than what was around there.

Normally, she would not have thought too much on someone living there, even if it was another member of Fairy Tail. No, it only bothered her because it was Naruto. He was strong enough to earn her respect in combat, and he did not seem scared of her like everyone else was. It made him different.

That was what led her to a puzzling question. Why did he intentionally live in such a bad part of town when he could quite possibly afford a place as nice as her residence in Fairy Hills? It fueled her curiosity. There was so much that she did not know about him.

She made her way up the stairs and found the apartment that Mirajane had told her he stayed at. She could not help but wonder how her former rival knew where Naruto lived since not even Makarov knew, but that was a matter for another time.

She opened the door and her frown deepened. By the appearance of that part of town, she had assumed that it was not a very nice apartment, but it was even worse than she had thought.

It was a fairly small apartment with a total of three rooms. The first room appeared to be a kitchen-living room combo.

The kitchen part of it had an old wooden bar that filled the corner to her left with and an antique table with a single wooden chair at it. She would not have trusted putting any weight on any of it. A beat up stove and a sink sat to the left of the bar.

The living room part of it was simply composed of a worn out sofa and an antique coffee table that had a dull gray book setting on it.

Looking to her left, she saw that his bedroom door was open. It seemed that the only furniture in it was an old twin sized bed and a worn out wardrobe that was missing both of its doors. The few articles of clothing he owned were inside it.

She blinked as she recognized a sound that she had been oblivious to since entering. It sounded as though the water was running.

_He must be taking a shower. I'll wait until he gets out so we can talk._

Shaking her head, she walked over to the counters and opened a few doors to the built-in cabinets. Looking through it, she found five pots and a dozen or so bowls. When she reached the final few cabinets, she found that he had roughly a hundred packets of various kinds of ramen.

_Is that all he eats?_

Naruto was growing to be a more and more curious person to her. She honestly could not deny that she hated how little she could find out about him. The previous night, she had asked Cana and Macao about him, but it seemed that he was secretive about his past even to them.

"Can I help you?"

Erza turned around and saw Naruto standing in front of the bathroom door. Fortunately, he was already dressed completely, though she was not sure how he had cut off the water and dressed as fast as she could look through his cabinets.

"My fight with Natsu is supposed to start in twenty-five minutes or so," Erza said as she looked at the blond. Looking into his eyes, she saw a mix of emotions. He had clearly not expected anyone to visit him. But that was not what she truly took note of in his eyes. She saw all the signs of a dark past. She had spent enough time around people with dark pasts to be able to determine a lot about a person just by looking into their eyes.

"I was getting ready to watch it," Naruto said with a nod. "Cana is going to take bets."

"Yeah, she mentioned it," Erza said, uninterested in any bets that occurred. "I came here to see how you were doing and to talk to you."

"I'm fine," Naruto said, understanding that she was referring to how weak he appeared the previous night. "I heal fast. What do you want to talk about?"

"I owe you," Erza said seriously. "You made a condition that I'd owe you if you helped me, and you did. I need to know when you want me to teach you swordsmanship."

"How about tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"I almost expected you to say today," Erza said with a hint of a smile.

"No, I have something I need to do first," Naruto said with a frown. "Was there anything else you needed?"

"Yes," Erza said with a frown. She hated the secrecy that he maintained, but she could accept it for now. "I want to know why you held back so much in our fight. That _Rasengan_ you used against Lullaby and that fox shroud you used to pass through the Wind Wall… they seemed far more powerful than anything you used against me."

"What did you feel when I used my chakra cloak?" Naruto asked.

_He must mean that shroud._ "It felt… strange. When you used it, it felt like a demon was standing in your place." _It's kind of like Mira's takeover, now that I think about it._

"You wouldn't be wrong," Naruto muttered under his breath, though she easily heard it. "It's not a form that I enjoy using. If I have no choice, I'll use it, but it's not something I would pull out normally. When Natsu hit me with his Fire Dragon's Roar in our fight, I had to pull it out so his flames didn't burn me. It's not always easy to stop using that form when I still have an opponent to fight though. That's why I knocked Natsu out in that form as quickly as I could."

_He doesn't want to talk about that form, so I'll try not to ask about it anymore. I get the feeling he'll tell me when he's ready._

"What about your _Rasengan_?" Erza asked curiously.

"The Rasengan is the perfect grinding tool," Naruto said with a sigh. "It's too dangerous to use on a comrade. If Master was giving me a test or something, I wouldn't be afraid to use it, but that's just because I know I couldn't beat him unless he was sleeping. Even then, I might have a little trouble." He laughed a bit at the end, earning a smile from Erza.

"You'll have to tell me about yourself one day," Erza said as she turned towards the door. "But in the meantime, we should head to the guild so we can get there early. There will likely be a crowd."

"Right," Naruto said with a nod. "Out of curiosity, is it true that your swords are magic swords?"

"Yes," Erza answered, a little surprised by the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm a little curious about magic swords," Naruto admitted. "I don't have a magic sword because I don't know if it would actually be magic in my hands. I don't have magic power like you guys, and my chakra is too different from magic power to power the same things you can."

Erza frowned as she led him out of the apartment. "I'm afraid so. Without magic power, you can't use magic swords or magic armor. A mage's magic power is what powers them."

"Oh, that's too bad," Naruto said, clearly not too happy with that information.

_What is this chakra he possesses though? I've never heard of it before. It looks like I'll have to visit the library before too long._

Her thoughts returned to the task at hand when she reached the street.

With that, they made their way to the Fairy Tail base so she could fight Natsu.

* * *

Naruto immediately walked up to Cana when he arrived in front of the guild and handed her ten thousand jewels. "I'm betting on Erza."

"Of course you are," Cana said with a smirk as she took it from him. "Just remember that just because she beat you and you beat him, that doesn't mean that he can't win."

"Snake beats toad and toad beats slug, but slug beats snake," Naruto said with a nod. It was an archaic form of rock-paper-scissors in that world, but he was familiar with it because of Jiraiya. It was a bit ironic when it came to the Sannin though. After all, everyone in the Elemental Nations knew that the Slug Princess always beat the Toad Sage.

"You're not worried that she'll lose," Cana said with a hint of mirth in her voice.

"No, I don't think she will," Naruto agreed. "She's the strongest girl in Fairy Tail, after all."

"And Natsu isn't even in the top five of the guys," Gray said as he handed Cana ten thousand jewels and bet on Erza as well.

"Who are the top five guys?" Naruto asked curiously.

"If we count Master, there are at least four guys stronger than you," Cana answered. "There's Luxus, Mystogan, and Gildarts."

"What if we don't count the Master?" Naruto asked. "Would Natsu be in it then?"

"I doubt it," Gray said with a shrug. "For one, there is at least one other guy who you'd be hard pressed to beat. Besides, we never finished our match, and it's possible that Elfman would be stronger than him if he actually went all out for once."

Once again, Naruto got the feeling that he had stumbled upon something that was a sensitive subject. It seemed like something had happened with Mirajane and Elfman that made them reluctant to fight all out.

"We better find some good spots so we can watch this," Gray said as he tapped Naruto on the shoulder and made his way over to the crowd.

Naruto reached it just as Makarov began to start the match.

"Is it really a good idea for two of the strongest team to fight?" Lucy suddenly asked from behind him.

"Strongest team? What are you talking about?" Gray asked in confusion.

"You know… Natsu, Erza, you, and Naruto," Lucy said. "You're the strongest team in Fairy Tail, aren't you?"

Naruto saw the look on Mirajane's face and remembered hearing her say something about it. Before Gray could make a comment on how it was ridiculous, which would no doubt hurt her feelings, he spoke.

"I wouldn't call us the strongest team, even if we are pretty tough. Erza's easily the strongest girl in Fairy Tail, but I've heard that there is one team that is even stronger than us," Naruto said as he shook his head. He had heard of the Thunder God Tribe a few times. They were three siblings that were said to be an incredibly strong team.

"It'll still be a good match though," Elfman said as he watched on.

"I doubt it," Gray said with a snort. "She'll wipe the floor with him."

Suddenly, Erza used her Requip Magic and the armor that appeared was like nothing Naruto had ever seen. It was black, red, and gold armor that covered her body similar to the way a one-piece swimsuit would, but it did not have straps of any kind going over her shoulders or around her neck. The armor did have a separate piece that covered her neck like a color, and there was also armor covering her arms from her elbows down and her legs from her knees down.

"That's her Flame Empress Armor," Gray said with a smirk. "It halves the damage that fire does to her, and the sword she uses in that form is capable of fire attacks."

Immediately, the pair moved into action. Natsu was holding nothing back, happy to be able to go all out without worrying about doing any serious damage.

Throughout the fight, Erza moved with grace and actually refused to use the fire attacks that Gray had told him she could use with her sword. He suspected that it was because Natsu could eat fire and get stronger.

Alas, the fight did not go on long. It came to an abrupt halt as a single clapping sound, brought everyone's attention to someone who was approaching them. The person had the shape of a human, but it looked like a frog.

_What in the hell is that?_

"Stay where you are, everyone," the frog person said. "I am a messenger here on behalf of the Magic Council."

Everyone looked surprised at that. Many started questioning why they would send a messenger. Naturally, no one but the frog knew the answer to that.

"Erza Scarlet, you are now under arrest for damage done to Oshibana Station, causing panic in Oshibana Town, destruction of a rented magic four-wheeler, theft of a magic four-wheeler, minor damage to the train tracks between Oshibana Town and Clover Town, and the destruction of the meeting hall where the Guild League meets in Clover Town. I need you to come with me," the messenger said.

"No," Naruto said, surprising everyone. "I won't stand by and let a friend be taken away for something they didn't do."

"If you intend to interfere, I'll have to place you both under arrest," the messenger said calmly.

Naruto was about to say something when Erza spoke.

"I appreciate it, but I'll be okay," Erza said. "Don't worry, Naruto."

With that, Naruto watched as Erza walked away with the messenger.

After a few minutes, he and Makarov were the only ones in front of the guild.

"I have to make sure Natsu is captured before he tries to interfere," Makarov said as he turned his back to Naruto. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Yes Master," Naruto said as disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto Uzumaki did not go back on his word. Erza was not solely responsible for the crimes that they said she had committed. She may have partially damaged the train station and caused panic. She might have also stolen a magic four-wheeler. However, Erigor had destroyed the magic four-wheeler that they rented and he had caused the partial damage to the train tracks using his magic.

The destroyed meeting hall in Clover was entirely Naruto's fault though. That was how he saw it, at least. He had been the one to weaken Lullaby's legs, and he completely believed that it only fell in that direction because of the Nine-Tails' chakra that he had expelled out of his mouth.

* * *

Naruto had tailed Erza and the messenger to the regional headquarters for the Council with ease. Sneaking into the court room afterwards was the hard part, but he had successfully gotten in. At that moment, he was standing behind a pillar near the doors, waiting to make his move.

"Defendant Erza Scarlet, concerning the terrorism committed by Eisenwald the other day, you are suspected of causing damage to Oshibana Station, causing panic in Oshibana, destruction of a rented magic four-wheeler, theft of another magic four-wheeler, causing minor damage to the train tracks between Oshibana and Clover, and destroying the meeting hall in Clover. According to the witness testimony, the one responsible was an armored mage," the Chairman said as he looked down at her. "How do you plead?"

Before she could say anything, footsteps drew everyone's attention to the doors.

"I plead guilty," Erza said, but it was not the Erza that was on trial. It was a perfect replication of her, but it was not her.

"What's the meaning of this?" the Chairman asked in shock.

A blue haired mage among the Council smiled at the sight and rose to his feet. "That's an impressive transformation. Every detail, even the voice and speech patterns, is right. I can't even tell that it's a fake just by looking at it. What is your real name?"

"I am Naruto Uzumaki of Fairy Tail," the fake Erza said before a cloud of smoke formed around her. Naruto's real form was revealed once it dissipated.

"What is the meaning of this?" the Chairman demanded once again.

"I will not allow a friend to suffer for crimes they did not commit," Naruto said with fiery determination in his eyes. "If you want to punish someone, then punish me. I caused partial damage to the station in Oshibana. I fought Erigor on the train tracks. I made Lullaby fall on the meeting hall in Clover. I am responsible."

"That is not your place to decide," the Chairman said as he glared at Naruto.

"If you refuse to let me take the full brunt of the responsibility, then I will at least take half of it," Naruto said as he met the Chairman's glare unflinching. "I will not stand by while my friends are punished for things they didn't do, and I never go back on my promise. That's my way."

All of the members of the Council looked shocked by his words, as did Erza.

"Very well then," the Chairman said after a few minutes. "You are both found guilty of the aforementioned crimes. You may now leave."

Naruto blinked in shock, trying to figure out what was going on. Erza simply walked back over to him and looked at him with a strange look that he could not place. She led him out of there and whispered to him as they left.

"They were just using me as a scapegoat," she said, shaking her head. "I wouldn't have been punished at all. It was just a way to make it seem like are completely in control. Still… I can't tell you how much it means to me that you came here to help. I never realized it before, but you're a very inspiring person."

Naruto just smiled as they made their way back home.

The look in her eyes when she looked at him on the way to Magnolia… it was a sight that he would never forget. Not too many people had ever looked at him with such admiration and appreciation before.

It was that day that Naruto and Erza truly became friends.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, I want to point out something that anyone who read this chapter in the first hour that it was up missed. I edited what I had about how magic swords and armor were powered. I originally had them powered by magic within them, but I can't help but feel that it's too unlikely now. If they were not powered by the user's magic, then Erza would not get low on magic power when fighting. That's how I see it, at least.

Anyways, I'd like to announce that I will not be writing the Galluna Island Arc. I had a poll up about it, and 20 more people voted for an original arc than for the Galluna Island Arc. Thus, I'll be doing this one.

Well, thanks for reading and reviewing.


	11. Reunion

Author's Note: If you read Chapter 10 right after I put it up, you missed something. If you didn't read it right after I put it up, you can ignore this.

I originally had Erza say that magic swords and magic armor were powered by their own magic. However, a reviewer and some logical thinking on my part changed my opinion, so I edited that part. Now, it says that magic swords and armor are powered by the magic of the wielder.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Black Phoenix Arc**

**11. Reunion**

Upon arriving back in Magnolia, Naruto had let Erza go back to the guild alone so she could explain everything that had happened to the other members of Fairy Tail. Naruto, on the other hand, had gone back to his apartment with a rather important task that needed completing.

During his fight with Erigor, he had heard a voice tell him that he had the power to win without the Nine-Tails. The memory of the voice had stayed in his thoughts constantly. If his suspicions were correct, the voice had come within him… from the seal. It was not his conscience, which had always sounded like Old Man Sarutobi.

He looked at the dull gray book on the coffee table in his apartment as he sat down. It was a four hundred page book on the sealing arts, fuinjutsu. It was a book that Jiraiya had given to him during training, and it contained all of the basic information on sealing that he had needed to learn. Though he had not been able to find any clues as to how to strengthen his seal through the book, he had read about an interesting thing that morning.

Apparently, it was possible to leave an imprint of one's soul within a seal. The book did not explain how it was done, but it said that seal masters could do it.

The Fourth Hokage was said to be a man who never made a wasted motion. If he was right, then the voice that had spoken to him came from a soul imprint within the seal. If he was right, the Fourth Hokage had spoken to him through the seal.

As strange of a concept as it was, it seemed like the only possibility outside of the dead contacting him, which he just did not want to imagine. Sure, the Fourth Hokage was dead, which would have basically meant that the dead were contacting him, but there was just something different about it.

Sitting in a meditative pose, Naruto closed his eyes and began to meditate. He needed to see the seal, and the only way he could do that was by using the exercises that Jiraiya had taught him when he was trying to contact the Nine-Tails at will.

Within moments, he was standing in his mindscape. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's massive cage was standing before him with the seal on it. The aforementioned fox was on the other side of the bars of the cage, looking at him.

"What do you want, you insolent worm?" the Nine-Tails asked with a growl.

"Shut up," Naruto said as he walked up to the cage. He was not worried about the Nine-Tails trying to strike him with its claws. It had tried that before when he was standing close to it. His form there was just a mental projection of himself, meaning that he could not actually sustain damage.

Blue chakra swirled around his feet and lifted him to the seal, where he placed his right hand and closed his eyes.

The Nine-Tails was clearly confused by his actions, but it did not say anything further.

"I don't need you to do whatever you left the imprint for," Naruto suddenly said. "Everything has changed, so please show yourself."

"You!" the Nine-Tails growled.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder and saw the Fourth Hokage standing about thirty yards away.

"Everything has changed," he agreed. "I never wanted to see the Nine-Tails again, but seeing you outweighs that. After all, it's not every day that I get to see my son."

Shock filled Naruto as he was lowered to the ground by the chakra. He did not take a single step upon reaching the ground.

"You're my father?" Naruto asked in shock.

"Yes," Minato said as he walked a little closer. "I'll understand if you hate me for what I did, but I had to do what I believed was right. You were my son and the village was another part of my family. To save both, I sealed away the Nine-Tails within you so that you could have the power you needed to defeat the man responsible for the Nine-Tails' attack. However, that's not important any longer. Now that you're in another world, there is nothing that can be done about it."

"I can never return," Naruto said as he walked up to the man that had helped bring him into the world. He had always respected and admired Minato Namikaze, and that did not change with the recent revelation. He could not bring himself to hate the man before him.

"No," Minato said, shaking his head. "However, if I told you I could show you how to open a portal and go back, would you ask me to do it?"

"No," Naruto replied after a few moments of thought. "Don't get me wrong. I loved the Hidden Leaf Village, my friends, and my teachers. But my best friend betrayed me, the girl I always liked never liked me back, my teachers never became more than just teachers, and so many people hated me. What I have in Fairy Tail… it's a thousand times better."

"All I want for you is to be happy," Minato said with a smile as he walked up to Naruto and ruffled his hair. "But we can't talk for too long. You need to know how to repair the seal once it grows too deteriorated."

"Yeah," Naruto said with a nod. "There isn't anyone else who can fix it when it gets bad."

"I'll seal away most of my knowledge of fuinjutsu within you then," Minato said with a smile, shocking Naruto. "I'll keep some of them from you. I don't want my signature jutsu resurfacing in any world. It's a weapon for killing, and you don't need it. Plus, some of the seals I know would do you no good. It would be pointless for you to learn how to use certain seals when the only chakra in this world is inside of you."

"I understand," Naruto said. "Before you do it, I want something else from you though."

"Oh?" Minato asked, curious.

"I want you to promise that you'll pass on a message to Old Man Sarutobi," Naruto said with a smile. "Tell him that I always thought of him as a grandfather."

"I will," Minato said as he closed his eyes and poked Naruto in the forehead, sealing most of his fuinjutsu knowledge within his son. Once it was done, he removed his hand and opened his eyes. His feet were fading away. "My son, I'm proud of the man you've become. Your mother would be too. Since you asked a favor of me, I'll ask one of you. Stop bottling up your emotions. The loss of everyone you grew up knowing and the loss of your dream… they're tearing you up. Until you face them, you can never truly move on. Oh, and just because I sealed everything inside you, that doesn't mean you will automatically learn it though. You'll have to learn it within your mindscape."

With that, Minato Namikaze faded away.

Naruto collapsed to his knees and let tears fall as he began to grieve for all that he had lost: his home, his friends, his teachers, his dream, and his father.

After he had regained control of himself and was somewhat understanding of the realization of everything he had lost, Naruto had sought out the information that his father had sealed within him. He had no intention of trying to learn anything that day, but he did want to know how to access it.

As it turned out the information appeared as a large book on a stand in one of the corridors of his mindscape. Looking at a few pages of it, he had found that his father had truly compiled a book of fuinjutsu within his mind, but that was not all that he had put in it. The first page had nothing to do with sealing. It was the instructions for utilizing a specific ninjutsu that could easily be useful. It was the instructions for the Toad Oil Bullet.

_Thanks Dad. This'll be useful._

Shaking his head, he left his mindscape. He needed to rest and to think on everything that had happened before he tried to learn anything.

* * *

"I'm not late, am I?" Naruto asked.

It was the next day, and he was standing behind the guild with Erza, who had her normal armor equipped and a long sword in her right hand.

"No, you're just on time," Erza said as she held her left hand out. A second long sword appeared in it. "Take this sword. It's a magic sword that normally becomes sharper and stronger by drawing on the wielder's magic. In your hands, it is simply a well constructed long sword."

Naruto took the sword from her, but he looked a little confused as he took it. He had a sword of his own, so he was not sure why she was handing him another one.

"You can borrow this one during our sessions," she said. "I understand that you use have been using a jian, but I'm not training you to use a specific kind of sword. The long sword you're holding is actually called a bastard sword. Its hilt is long enough for a hand and a half to fit on it. If you can learn to use it, you'll be able to easily adapt to shorter, lighter swords."

"Okay," Naruto said as he took the sword in both hands, his left hand touching the pommel.

"Let's see what you can do," Erza said as she entered a fighting stance with her sword in hand. "I can't teach you anything until I know how good you are."

Immediately, the pair moved into action.

* * *

As they heard the sound of swords clashing, Natsu stood up and looked around. "What's going on? Is someone fighting?"

"Calm down," Gray said, shaking his head. "Erza's teaching Naruto how to use a sword."

"I thought you were teaching him that," Cana said with a frown. "You guys kept practicing outside last week."

"I'm not a weapons specialist," Gray said with a shrug. "Erza is best suited to teaching someone to use a sword. It's just too bad that any sword he gets won't be a match for any sword wielding mage."

"Yes, he can't use magic swords, so his swords won't be as strong as that of a sword wielding mage," Makarov agreed from the bar.

"He can't use magic swords?" Mirajane asked curiously.

"He uses a different form of magic that isn't compatible with magic swords, magic armor, or magic four-wheelers," Makarov replied. "He doesn't actually have magic power in the same sense that anyone else in here does."

"Is it possible for him to gain magic power?" Cana asked, surprising everyone.

"It's impossible for someone who lacks magic power to gain it," Makarov said with a frown, but he had a suspicion that she knew something he did not.

"I suppose so," Cana said with shrug. _But that fuinjutsu he uses… maybe it's not as impossible as everyone thinks._

A sudden bar brawl began, taking everyone's attention off of the conversation.

* * *

That night, Naruto was in his mindscape once again, going over the book that his father had sealed away in his mind. He knew that it was not really a book. It was just the form that the sealed knowledge took, but it was easier to think of it as a book.

He had committed the Toad Oil Bullet to memory before moving on and skimming through the first half of the book. He had only found information about fuinjutsu that was already in the book he owned.

That changed when he found reached the second half of the book though.

He found a note at the start of the second half of the book that was addressed to him.

_Naruto, I'm sure you know everything before this book already. I know Jiraiya-sensei trained you, so he no doubt taught you quite a bit about fuinjutsu already. If I'm right and you know seal theory and the mechanics behind the seals already, then this next part is what you need. It contains a variety of seals that are far more advanced the generic sealing technique. They go in order from easiest to hardest, so don't just skip to the back of the book. Knowing how to repair the seal is pointless unless you have the skill necessary to do it._

_-Dad_

Naruto just shook his head with a smile and turned the page. He flipped a few more pages, taking in the names of the seals that were written about in it.

_The Finger Engraving Seal, the Fire Sealing Method, the Water Sealing Method, the Earth Sealing Method, the Lightning Sealing Method, the Wind Sealed Method, the Tailed Beast Chakra Suppression Seal… Pervy Sage never taught me how to do any of it. This is going to be good. I'll get started on the Finger Engraving Seal first._

Naruto exited his mindscape, his living room coming back into sight. As soon as he became aware of his surroundings, he saw something unusual. A cloth wrapped object was setting on his coffee table. It had not been there when he entered his mindscape. He was sure of it.

He carefully unwrapped it and could not help but be shocked by what he saw. Inside it was a beautiful long sword with a steel blade, a steel cross guard with a red crystal at the center of it, a black leather wrapped hilt, and a red crystal for a pommel.

_Those aren't regular crystals._ His eyes widened as they focused on the red crystals. He could feel the power within them when he touched them. _They're lacrima, magic filled crystals._

Next to the sword was a note. Picking it up, he read it aloud.

"I heard you can't use magic of your own, so I thought you might appreciate this more than most. Using the magic in the two lacrima of the sword, this magic sword isn't useless to you. Use it sparingly, for the two lacrima within Fire Slinger will eventually run out of power." A frown came to his face as he saw that the note was not signed. However, he could not help but be happy that he finally had a magic sword that he could actually use.

"I wonder who dropped it off," Naruto muttered before he shook his head. As curious as he was, his main goal at the moment was using the Finger Engraving Seal, so he went over to the kitchen table with the intention of practicing it on the furniture. It was not his, so he did not care what happened to it.

* * *

In the street outside of Naruto's apartment, Mystogan made his way out of Magnolia.

He had heard mention that Erza was teaching Naruto how to use a sword before he put everyone in Fairy Tail to sleep, and he had even heard someone mention his lack of magic power, which made the use of magic swords mostly useless.

He was still not sure why he had given an Edolas weapon to the second newest member of Fairy Tail.

Perhaps he sympathized with the young man. After all, neither of them possessed magic of their own, and Mystogan was well aware that Naruto was not from Earth Land either. He had sensed Naruto's arrival into the world and had just barely been beaten by Porlyusica to the scene.

At first, he had thought it was a reverse Anima of some kind, but it had been far too different from Anima.

Still, he was confident that Naruto had nothing but good intentions. He had certainly caused no harm since showing up.

"We will have to talk one day in the future, Naruto Uzumaki," the most mysterious mage of Fairy Tail said quietly as he left town.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

I'm sure that at least someone is going to think that I've made it a bit too easy for Naruto thanks to Minato sealing fuinjutsu knowledge within Naruto's mind, but I hope that the fact that he has to learn it the hard way makes that a little better.

I've always planned on having Minato do this from the very start.

Oh, and I want to explain why Naruto didn't punch Minato. I just didn't think it was appropriate.

The circumstances were a bit different, and my Naruto is more mature than canon Naruto. Plus, he was a bit shell shocked about the announcement at first.

Anyways, Erza gets to go after Team Natsu next chapter while Naruto goes on a different job. We'll see how that works out.


	12. A New Job

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Black Phoenix Arc**

**12. A New Job**

When Naruto arrived for his training session with Erza, he immediately knew something was wrong. It was the only thing that stopped him from telling her about the magic sword that showed up in his apartment the previous night.

All thoughts of it faded away when he saw the look in her eyes. She appeared to be angry, which was a sight of her that he could not recall seeing before.

"What's wrong?" he immediately asked.

"You're late," Erza said with the same angry look.

"No, I'm not," Naruto said with a raised eyebrow. It was still ten minutes before their training session was supposed to begin. After having Kakashi for a sensei, he made sure to be on time. He knew how much tardiness annoyed other people.

Erza frowned, but she nodded after a few moments. "I apologize, Naruto. I'm just not in a good mood. I just found out that Natsu and Lucy left last night after stealing an S-class job from the second floor."

Naruto's eyes widened. He had been lectured about the second floor before. After all, he had thought it would be a cool place to go until Makarov stopped him and explained what the second floor was for. Only S-class mages could go up there, one of which was Erza. He knew that there were only five S-class mages in Fairy Tail, and Natsu was definitely not one.

"They're in trouble," he said as he took in the information. "I'm surprised you haven't gone after them."

"I showed up an hour too late," Erza said with a mixture of emotions. It appeared she was happy to hear him say that but displeased about still being there. "Gray went after them. If he doesn't bring them back by tomorrow morning, I can go after them, but Master refuses to let me go until then."

"Let's get your mind off of that then," Naruto said as he held a hand out.

"Agreed," Erza said as she summoned two swords and handed him one. "You clearly learn better by doing, so I won't be giving you drills like most people go through when learning swordsmanship. I want you to come at me with only the use of your sword. I will stay on the defense and point out any mistakes you made. We'll switch off and on every hour."

No one could say that Erza was not a tough teacher. In fact, Naruto would be more than happy to insist that she was the toughest later that day when she started slapping him with the flat of her blade every time he left himself open.

Despite how tough she was during training, Naruto could not help but admit that he cherished his time with his newest friend.

* * *

That night, Naruto was sitting at his kitchen table with two stacks of paper in front of him. The one to the left was quite a bit smaller than the one to the right. He had started entering his mindscape, memorizing a single seal, and copying what the book in his mind said about it on paper. As such, he was able to more readily understand each seal as he learned it, and he had physical copies of the seals that he was learning.

So far, he had managed to learn the Finger Engraving Seal, the seals for the five elements, and the Tailed Beast Suppression Seal, though he was not one hundred percent sure the last one worked since the only tailed beast in his world was inside of him. He did know that he could not consciously draw upon its chakra if he had one attached to him, but he was unsure if it would suppress its chakra if he was already using it.

For some strange reason, Naruto found that he learned fuinjutsu easier to learn than expected.

His mind was not entirely on the seals he had already learned though. Earlier, he had skipped forward in the book to see how many different seals there were in it. Much to his surprise, there were only about twenty-five more seals left before the section on his seal. The part about his seal was somewhere around a hundred pages long. Apparently, it was a very complicated seal. In addition to that, there was apparently background information on the seal.

The only thing that had stopped him from reading about it was a note that his father had left in the book in the front of that section. It had told him not to start reading it until he had at least read everything else in it.

The last five seals in the book were almost as tempting to read as the part about his seal, but that was only because they were labeled as forbidden jutsu at the top of their pages. He had actually read a few paragraphs about the first of the five forbidden seals. He had trouble reading past that though. It was a seal that bound the soul of a living being to a specific item, preventing them from moving on to the afterlife. He immediately knew that the seals that his father deemed forbidden were not forbidden in the same way that the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu were.

Shaking his head away from such thoughts he removed a blank sheet of paper from the stack to the right and closed his eyes. He was not going to waste any time. There was something pushing him to get stronger, and the next jutsu in the book could only help him.

He could not think of the one that he began to copy down as a seal, despite its relevance to sealing. It allowed the user to generate a seal purely using their chakra. As such, they could touch someone and leave a seal on them within a single moment. Apparently, his father was the creator of the jutsu, and he had never taught anyone else how to use it.

As he continued working, he had no idea what awaited him the next day.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto frowned as he saw that Erza was not behind the guild like she had been the past two days. It seemed that she had gone to bring Natsu and Lucy back to the guild after all.

Sighing, he entered the guild and noticed that Makarov was looking at him as if he was amazed.

"Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Isn't that the old saying?" Macao asked with a chuckle.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"I was just going to send for you," Makarov said with a grin. "You saved us some trouble. An important job has come up, and I want you to lead a team to deal with it."

Naruto could not hide his shock, or his excitement, at the Master of Fairy Tail's words. He had never really been in charge of a job before.

"What's the job?" he asked with a grin as he walked up to Makarov.

"Councilman Siegrain has offered this job specifically to you," Makarov said, surprising everyone who was listening. "Because of your success during the Lullaby Incident and your actions when Erza was put under trial, he wants you to lead a team of your choosing. Your task is to defeat and capture the Black Phoenix, a fairly small Dark Guild."

Everything about the job sounded fun to Naruto. He longed to push himself to his limits to see how much he had grown thanks to his father's fuinjutsu. "What's the pay?"

"One million jewels," Makarov said, making his eyes widen. "Black Phoenix was as large as Eisenwald at one time, but most of them agreed to disband when they were named a Dark Guild two years ago. The Council learned that their forces stand at twenty-six mages. Their location is halfway between Oshibana Town and Mount Hakobe. You may choose your team."

His old personality tried to slip out at that point, but he knew that declaring he could do it by himself would not have been a smart idea. He was getting the feeling that the job was some sort of test. "What kind of guy is their leader? I've never heard of anyone with a name like that."

"I have no idea who he is," Makarov said, surprising Naruto. "I'm sure it's an alias. The strongest members of Black Phoenix disbanded and joined other guilds, so it isn't considered to be a very strong Dark Guild. There are rumors that their leader isn't even a member of Black Phoenix from its days as a legal guild. I'm inclined to believe that it was an unallied mage who took over the guild when they lost most of their strength. He's said to be a powerful opponent, nonetheless. He is said to possess some sort of explosive magic."

"Did the guild specialize in fire magic?" Naruto asked after a few moments later.

"Was the name that obvious?" Makarov asked with a chuckle as he nodded.

"Okay, I'll pick my team," Naruto said as he looked around. His eyes first landed on Cana. He knew how strong she was. They worked well together too. "Hey Cana, do you want in on this?"

"Sure," she said as she turned around in her barstool.

"We need three more people," Naruto said as he looked around. With five mages, he would feel better about the job. He was more cautious than he had been in his world, so he wanted to have more than enough people just in case Dawg Anders was a challenge to fight.

"How about Shadow Gear?" Cana asked, catching the attention of Levy's team. "They have good teamwork and are pretty strong."

"What do you guys think?" Naruto asked as he looked over at Levy, Droy, and Jet. They all looked to each other before nodding their heads.

"We'll help," Levy said.

"That's settled then," Naruto said as he turned to face Makarov once again. "We'll go and take care of that right now."

"Good luck," Makarov said.

"Thanks," Naruto replied. He looked over at his new allies and said, "Meet me at the train station in half an hour."

"I'll go with you now," Cana said as she rose to her feet and walked up to him.

Naruto gave her a curious look, but he simply nodded and walked out of the guild with her.

About ten minutes passed before they were nearing the train station. It was at that time that Cana decided to say something.

"Naruto, I was wondering if you'd like to go out after the job is over," Cana said with a somewhat nervous smile.

That stopped Naruto in his tracks. He looked her over for a moment before asking, "It's not that I don't like you or something, but why would you want to…."

"I just want to go out on a date. I'm not asking for anything serious right now," Cana said with a light smile. "Have you seen some of the other guys in Fairy Tail? I wouldn't be caught dead going on a date with Elfman, Natsu, or Gray. Some of the others our age are nearly as bad."

"I don't know," Naruto said as he looked away. "I doubt you'd enjoy going out with me though. I've never actually been on a date."

"Then we need to change that," Cana said with a look that told him she was not going to take no for an answer.

Seeing that look, he tried to think of an honest reason that he did not want to go on a date with her. She was his closest friend in Earth Land, she was a rather powerful mage, she was incredibly beautiful, and she actually wanted to go on a date with him. He knew that if Jiraiya was there at that moment, he would smack him upside the head.

"On second thought, I'd be happy to," Naruto said with a smile. "But you get to pay."

"That's not what a gentleman would do," Cana said as she crossed her arms.

"Erza told me she beat Natsu when the match started back up," Naruto said with a grin. "I bet on her, but you never paid me back."

"Damn, you remembered," Cana muttered under her breath, making Naruto laugh. "You seem much more happy than you were when you first joined."

"I am," Naruto agreed.

* * *

Naruto and Cana sat right in front of the train tracks on a bench while they waited on their partners to arrive. They had already bought the train tickets for the entire team, so waiting was all that was left to do.

Levy was the first one to show up. Looking at her again, Naruto had to admit that she was unlike most of the girls in Fairy Tail. She was not quite up there in looks department in comparison to some of the girls that he spent a lot of time around. That was not to say that she was not attractive though. Whereas Mirajane, Erza, Lucy, and Cana were, for the lack of a better term, hot, Levy was simply a cute girl.

There was one thing that stood out about her though. She was a genius. She knew a variety of ancient languages and was the only person Naruto had allowed to study his paper bombs.

"How's it going?" Naruto asked, immediately catching both girls' attention. They knew what he was talking about.

"It's hopeless," Levy said with a frown. "Even with the instructions on how you create paper bombs, I can't figure it out. They just won't explode."

"Here," Naruto said as he handed her a dull gray book the instant that it appeared from his right wrist band. "I should've given it to you right away."

"What's this?" she asked in confusion as she looked at the cover. It was called _A Guide to the Sealing Arts_.

"It's a book on seals and seal theory," Naruto said as he felt a headache come on. Even though he was more skilled with fuinjutsu than any of his classmates had been, it was still confusing to think about seal theory. "Since you can't figure it out, that might help you. It explains how it works and why the seals have to be made in a certain way."

"Thank you!" Levy said in the most excited voice that he had heard in a long time as she bent down and gave him a hug. She broke away from the hug and put on her special glasses that let her read fast and began to read the book.

"Why is she so excited?" Naruto asked Cana, fully aware that his blue haired teammate was not paying attention to him.

"Her magic is kind of like your sealing arts. They're pretty different, but they are kind of related regardless," Cana said as she shook her head at the blue haired girl's antics.

"Well, they're just on time," Naruto said as he rose to his feet. Jet and Droy were not too far behind the bench. "Let's hop on a train and head to Oshibana Town. We can go and kick the Black Phoenix's ass from there."

Cana just rolled her eyes at the blond's behavior.

* * *

Author's Note: I have to say something before anyone gets the wrong idea. This is not a Naruto/Cana fic, nor is it a harem of any sort. I won't go into the reason I generally won't read, let alone write, harems, but the important thing is that's not my style.

So why did I have them decide to go on a date? Their personal feelings aside, I feel that it would be better for Naruto and Erza if he had some experience at dating before they got together.

Now, I want to talk for a moment.

People keep bringing up nature manipulation and Sage Mode. Let me clarify things. Naruto will never master nature manipulation. He did create a weak wind jutsu, which he only broke Erigor's Storm Mail with because he overloaded it, using his sword, but that won't be an attack he uses very often at all. Furthermore, he will never learn Sage Mode.

As smart as Naruto is in this fic, I can't imagine him figuring out how to generate wind chakra on his own, even if he did come close during his fight with Erigor. Regardless, figuring it out would be a bit pointless since it would take so long to manage it. As it is, he'll have abilities that far exceed that of nature manipulation.

Oh, and I want to address the Shadow Clone training method now. I've put off addressing it for too long. Naruto will not be using it. He will figure out the information sharing aspect of it, but he won't even consider the possibility that it could be used for training. Given my plans, it wouldn't work out well if he tried to train with them like that anyway.

However, I can say that Naruto will practice his swordsmanship against shadow clones, but that's not the same, seeing as how physical training doesn't carry over through clones.

Anyways, thanks for reading.


	13. The Dynamite Slinger

Author's Note: I have no idea why some people assume that it's the end of the world if Naruto can't use Nature Manipulation, Sage Mode, or the Shadow Clone Training Method. I've already said that Naruto will gain magic, so it's not like a lack of jutsu will make him weak.

Besides that, the Shadow Clone Training Method has always felt like cheating to me. It's kind of like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in DBZ and that one place where Ichigo trained before fighting Aizen the final time. It seemed to make an appearance the instant that the writer realized that the protagonist was too weak to grow strong enough to handle an enemy. That's just how I feel about the matter, at least.

It seems the problem may be that the ones who complain just want a strong Naruto, whereas people like me want to see him struggle to grow stronger.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Black Phoenix Arc**

**13. The Dynamite Slinger**

Naruto, Cana, Levy, Jet, and Droy were all crouching at the bottom of a hill. On the other side of it, there appeared to be an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. A tall iron fence went around the place with a single set of gates in the front. The emblem of the Black Phoenix saw above the doors of the warehouse.

It was obviously the base of the Black Phoenix Guild.

"So what's the plan?" Droy asked, no doubt curious as to how the youngest member of their group intended to take down a Dark Guild.

"Well, I thought I'd go and knock," Naruto said with a shrug, making Droy and Jet both widen their eyes in shock. His plan was far less impressive than they had expected of the guy who had fought so well against Erza and beat Natsu.

"I thought you were out of kunai," Cana said with a raised eyebrow.

"I have four left, but I'm not using them," Naruto replied, shaking his head. "I don't need to use my paper bombs this time. I have something else up my sleeve."

"You don't have sleeves," Cana pointed out.

"Neither do you," Naruto said as he touched the seal on his left wristband. Suddenly a sword appeared in his hand. It had two red lacrima in it, one in the guard and one in the place of a pommel.

"You figured out a way to get around your problem," Cana said with a grin.

"Oh yeah, they mentioned you don't have any magic power," Levy said thoughtfully. "Where'd you get a sword that is powered by lacrima?"

"Someone left it in my apartment when I wasn't paying attention," Naruto said with a shrug, causing everyone to look at him blankly. "Anyways, I don't know what your abilities are, so I don't know what to tell you guys to do."

"I use God Leg, it's a type of magic that boosts my speed," Jet said.

"I use Plant Magic. I threw seeds at the ground and can control their growth completely," Droy said.

"And I use Solid Script," Levy said with a cheerful smile. "I can write anything in the air, and the word will appear made of what the word is. If I wrote _cloud_, then you'd see the word made of clouds. It works the same way with iron, fire, lightning, water, ice, and pretty much anything else you can think of."

"How about ramen?" Naruto asked, nearly drooling at the prospect of magic like that.

"I don't know," Levy said with a giggle. It was clear she had never tried it with food before.

"It probably wouldn't end well," Cana said, rolling her eyes. "I got her to write _booze_ with her magic, and it just fell all over the ground."

Naturally, that made Naruto laugh.

"Okay, I have a plan," Naruto said with a grin. "I'll blow a hole in their gate and the front door. Cana, get three Reverse Tower cards out just in case. Levy, create some ice to stand behind. Droy plant your seeds and stay with Levy. You can do your stuff from behind the ice. Jet, kick their asses and don't get burned. It's time to show them what we can do."

"Three Reverse Tower cards… isn't that a bit much?" Cana asked with a frown.

"It might not be enough," Naruto said as he began to walk up the hill with his sword in hand. "There's only one way to find out.

Naruto stopped when he was about twenty yards from the iron gates that they needed to get through. He held his sword up and closed his eyes. He had practiced reaching out and touching the magic within one of the lacrima before, but it was the first time he had ever used its magic.

Accessing the magic within the lacrima pommel, Naruto swung the sword down, sending a blast of fire at the gates.

A blast of fire just strong enough to knock the gates open… that was what he had tried to do. Instead, he had used up all of the magic in the lacrima pommel and sent a massive fireball flying at the gates. It was strong enough to throw the gates open and burn the doors to the warehouse to cinders.

Immediately, a number of mages rushed out of the doors. There were ten of them, and they all prepared fire blasts to launch at them.

"Reflection Combination: Three Reverse Towers," Cana said as she suddenly stepped in front of Naruto. Three magic circles appeared before her. They were layered and of equal size.

When the ten fire blasts struck the circles, they came to a halt and launched them back at the mages of Black Phoenix.

The blast sent them flying, appearing to knock them out.

Naruto's attention did not stay on them though. He was confident that his companions could take on the rest of the Black Phoenix mages. He had a more pressing matter to deal with.

He used the Body Flicker Technique to appear inside the warehouse. He knew that it appeared as though he teleported it, whereas he really only just accelerated his speed in a single burst. In that world, it seemed to make his enemies nervous. However, the man standing directly across from him did not appear to be nervous in the least.

"Leave him to me. You can finish his companions," a man in his early twenties said as he looked at Naruto. He looked as though he had not shaven in a few weeks, but his clothes made him look as though he was a noble.

"You're Dawg Anders," Naruto said as he gripped his sword in both hands.

"Yes," the man said as he raised a short sword in front of him. It was of simple design. The sword had a round pommel, a leather wrapped hilt, and a hand guard that was angled up slightly. The blade and the metal of the sword looked as though they were made of fine steel.

"I'm supposed to capture you," Naruto said as fire engulfed his blade. "I hope I don't kill you." With that, he swung the sword, sending a small blast of fire at the man, who simply rolled out of the way with calculating eyes.

"Why don't you hit me with your magic?" Naruto asked as the man did not make a move.

"Very well then," Dawg said as he charged at Naruto and swung his sword at him.

Fire engulfed Naruto's sword as he swung his sword at Dawg's.

And then he was thrown back a ways as an explosion radiated from Dawg's sword. It made him hit the ground rolling.

"You're an idiot," Dawg said, shaking his head. "Everyone who comes after me things they can beat me up close and personal, but that's my specialty. I have some minor fire magic, but I stopped using it once I got this sword, my Dynamite Slinger. It's a sword that releases an explosion every time it makes contact with anything. You can't block it. You can only dodge it."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. He had not realized that the man's magic relied solely on the blade. That was not the big problem though. Naruto was a close range fighter. He had quite a few strong attacks, but they were all close range. He had his Chakra Hammer, Rasengan, Rasenrengan, Giant Rasengan, and Giant Rasenrengan. His Chakra Slicing Blade, as he called the attack where he threw a blade of chakra at his opponent when he swung his sword, was nowhere near fast enough to hit the guy.

A grin came to his face as he remembered a jutsu that he had never used before. He tossed his sword into the air, formed the snake hand sign, and began to knead his chakra into a sticky, flammable oil. He opened his mouth and shot a large glob of oil at Dawg, who swung his sword at it on instinct.

The explosion that resulted slammed him against the wall, knocking him out before Naruto even caught his sword.

"It's a good thing it didn't work right," he muttered as he looked at the flaming oil in the center of the room. The Toad Oil Bullet was supposed to release a large amount of oil from the user's mouth, but Naruto's oil had ended up being a tenth as much as he tried to shoot. Still, the Dynamite Slinger had proved it could cause explosions even if it did not hit a solid target.

Walking over to the unconscious leader of the guild, Naruto picked up the Dynamite Slinger and sealed it, as well as the Fire Slinger, in his left wristband. Then, he pulled out some ninja wire, tied Dawg up, and carried him out of there.

As he walked out, he saw that Team Shadow Gear and Cana were standing out there, out of breath. They were uninjured, but he did not see any of their enemies around.

"I'll take care of him too," Cana said as she pulled out a card and walked up to Naruto. She touched Dawg with it, and the card appeared to suck him inside it.

"I didn't know you could do that," Naruto said in surprise.

"You're not the only one with tricks up your sleeves," Cana said with a grin, making Naruto shake his head.

"Why'd you leave us to handle those guys?" Droy suddenly asked. "They were pretty tough."

"I had to fight their leader," Naruto said with a shrug. "He had a sword that exploded every time it hit something."

"Now you're just screwing with us," Cana said with a hint of humor. "It sounded like you were just fighting with fire magic."

Naruto unsealed the Dynamite Slinger and handed it to Cana.

"Tap the ground with it," he said, anxious to see her reaction.

As expect, the second she hit the ground with the blade, an explosion went off right where it hit. It blew a good sized hole in the ground. The expression on her face was priceless.

Naruto immediately took the sword back and sealed it away at that point. "I don't have magic power, so I'm the only one who can handle it without accidently blowing something up."

Cana immediately sighed at that. "I thought it would be pretty cool to keep. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter. It would probably drain my magic power if I used it in a fight anyway."

"Probably," Naruto said with a shrug. "Let's head to Oshibana Town, drop those guys off at the jail, and head home. Last one there's a rotten noodle."

"A rotten noodle?" Levy asked, confused.

"He has ramen on the brain," Cana said with an overdramatic sigh. She could only hope it did not stay on his mind for long. They were supposed to go on a date when they got back, after all.

Naruto started to run towards Oshibana Town at that, but he came to a stop when he was hit with a gust. The sound of groaning made his eyes widen.

He looked over his shoulder and saw that Cana had been knocked down. Three more gusts hit him in rapid succession, taking Team Shadow Gear down.

Looking in front of him, anger was clear in his eyes. Erigor was standing before him with a new scythe.

"I heard you escaped," Naruto said as his anger grew even further. "You screwed up by hurting my comrades."

"I'm not worried," Erigor said as he prepared a wind spell. "I'll just kill you."

"Not today," Naruto said as he lifted his right arm in front of him with the back of it facing him.

"Emera Baram," Erigor said as he sent a concentrated blast of wind blades at Naruto that would have been able to slice most enemies to pieces.

"Wind Sealing Method," Naruto said as he formed the ram hand sign with his left hand only. Seals came to life on his right arm. Before the Emera Baram hit him, a vapor shot from the center of the seals on his arm, and sealed the Emera Baram away. "Wind Sealing Method: Release."

All of the sudden, the seals glowed and launched the attack back at Erigor. The Emera Baram slammed into his chest, making it look as though someone repeatedly sliced away at his skin with a serrated knife.

Blood covered Erigor's chest, and it did not appear to be stopping.

"Fairy Tail doesn't kill their opponents," Erigor said weakly.

"How did I kill you?" Naruto asked evenly. "I don't have wind magic, so I can't have hit you with that Emera Baram, of whatever you called it."

"You bastard!" Erigor yelled before he began to cough up blood.

"Fine," Naruto said as he unsealed a blank scroll from his right wristband. He ran his index finger across his teeth, slicing it open so that he could draw a seal capable of holding a human being inside of it. Unfortunately, he could not draw the seal simply with his chakra. It had limitations on the size of the seal that it was used to make.

After he finished the seal, he formed a few hand signs and slammed his hands down on it. A vapor came out of it, surrounded Erigor, and sealed the man inside of it. The last words he spoke were a death threat. However, Erigor had attacked one of Naruto's friends.

A dead man's threats were wasted.

Naruto threw the seal into the air, summoned Fire Slinger from his left wristband, and swung it towards the sword. Fire shot out of it, incinerating the scroll within seconds.

As he sealed his sword back up, he looked to see what condition his companions were in. They were all still unconscious, but he could see that they had minor injuries at most.

"I better keep Erigor's fate to myself," Naruto said as he shook his head and created some clones to carry off his companions. He knew that killing anyone, even a criminal, was a crime in Fiore. However, there was an old saying he decided to abide by for that incident.

"It's only illegal if you get caught," Naruto muttered.

So with that, he headed towards Oshibana Town with his unconscious companions.

* * *

As Naruto walked away from the scene with his clones, a figure walked out from behind the warehouse. It was none other than Ultear. However, it was merely a Thought Projection. Her real body was in Galluna Island.

"So, Naruto Uzumaki isn't quite like his allies," Ultear mused aloud.

His abilities were incredible. She had been intrigued by him since she saw him jump to Erza Scarlet's defense during her hearing. His magic was definitely unusual.

She had seen him use Transformation Magic in the court room, but that was just the beginning. Just that night, she had seen him use a magic sword that was powered by lacrima, he had used some form of High Speed Magic to get past the other members of Black Phoenix, he used some form of Requip Magic to pull out weapons and scrolls, he could use some form of oil-based magic, he used some sort of Reflection Magic against Erigor, and he had some sort of Sealing Magic.

Not only were his abilities unusual and varied, but he had not even looked bothered when he killed Erigor. It was as though he was a trained killer.

The most intriguing thing that she had observed was not about his abilities or his personality though. She had used her Thought Projection to switch vantage points several times, allowing her to see the fight with Dawg Anders and Erigor. It was not the fights that she had taken the most pleasure in watching, however.

She had learned something incredible. Naruto Uzumaki did not possess any magic power of his own. For him to do everything that he did without magic power… it left her puzzled.

"I'll have to get to the bottom of this puzzle before I report to Master Hades," Ultear said quietly. "But first, I have business to take care of. I'll surely have to face the Salamander before too long."

With that, her Thought Projection disappeared. Having a presence there was pointless. At that point.

* * *

**Weapon Corner**

Dynamite Slinger- it's a short sword with explosive power. By drawing on the user's magic, it can be used to cause an explosion upon contact with any solid object. While it doesn't work on water, it does work on materials that are between solid and liquid, like mud or the thick oil that the Toad Oil Bullet produces.

The Dynamite Slinger is not simply a sword with destructive power though. It grants the wielder protection from explosions. As an example of this, the explosion that occured when it hit Naruto's oil did not hurt Dawg Anders. It threw him back, but the explosion itself did not harm him. The wall he hit was what knocked him out.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, that's the chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

And yes, Naruto did kill Erigor in a way that left no remains. No one can prove that he killed him, even if people will suspect it (and in Ultear's case, know it). Erigor was not his first kill though. After all, he killed someone with the Giant/Odama Rasengan in the Rescue Gaara Arc. I just can't think of the name of the Sand ninja/Akatsuki recruit that it was.

Next chapter, the team arrives back in Magnolia, Naruto and Makarov have a talk regarding Erigor's disturbance, and Naruto goes on his date with Cana. Naruto will also make a discovery next chapter. I'll stop now so I don't ruin anything for you guys.


	14. Naruto's First Date

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Black Phoenix Arc**

**14. Naruto's First Date**

Naruto sighed in relief when he finally arrived at the place he considered home, Fairy Tail.

It was still only around five in the afternoon, so they had actually made fairly good time getting back. Still, it had taken too long in his opinion.

All four of his partners for his most recent mission would not quit apologizing for getting knocked out and making him carry them all the way to Oshibana Town before they woke back up.

They knew that they had been attacked as they were about to head away from the Black Phoenix's base, but they had absolutely no idea who attacked them. Naruto had actually avoided the subject, knowing that it would be best to only tell the story two or three times at most. Keeping the fact that he killed Erigor a secret was the best option, after all.

Thinking back to how he disposed of Erigor, he frowned. When he thought back on it, he realized that he did not actually know if Erigor was dead or not. If he had burned his body to ash and bones and then sealed it away, he would know. However, he had sealed Erigor into a pocket dimension and then set the scroll on fire. He had either managed to effectively trap Erigor into a pocket dimension for an eternity, or he had incinerated everything inside of the pocket dimension when he incinerated the scroll.

For Erigor's sake, he hoped it was the latter. Time did not pass in storage scrolls, which meant that someone who was stuck in one would never age or suffer from a lack of food, water, or oxygen. In fact, a person that was sealed inside a scroll would remain unaware of anything. It was not as if Erigor would suffer an eternity of being aware of everything in a blank white space. No, he would instead never be able to move on

Either way, Naruto would not lose any sleep.

He opened the door and walked into the guild with his comrades behind him.

"Oh, you're back already?" Makarov asked as he saw Naruto.

"It wasn't too difficult," Naruto said with a shrug as he walked up to the bar. "All twenty-six members of the Black Phoenix are sitting in Oshibana jail cells."

"That's good to hear," Makarov said, clearly pleased. "Each of you will get two hundred thousand jewels by the end of the week."

"We don't deserve it," Levy said with a frown, catching everyone's attention. "After we finished them off, we got knocked out by some mage with a long scar across his chest. He also had a scythe on his back."

That earned Makarov's attention.

"Damn, you saw him," Naruto muttered before he cleared his throat. "Erigor somehow found out about the job and came to kill me after we beat the Black Phoenix Guild. I beat him, but I was too worried about Cana and the others to take him as a prisoner."

"I think I understand what happened," Makarov said with a look that told Naruto that his half-truth did not fool him. "I'll inform the Council that Erigor attacked you but he retreated after you beat him."

"Thanks," Naruto said as he began to turn away.

"Next time, make sure you take him as a prisoner," Makarov said with a hidden message that only Naruto understood. Essentially, it was "Next time, take him alive."

"Right," Naruto said as he continued walking. "I'm heading home."

"I meet you out front in an hour," Cana said suddenly, stopping him. "Don't forget to wear something nice. You're supposed to take me out on a date, remember?"

Naruto looked back with a smile and nodded. Inwardly, he groaned. The looks that everyone was giving him made him wish that she had kept quiet about it.

Putting aside the gossip that would no doubt get around by the next day, Naruto made his way out of the guild. It appeared that he needed to go shopping for new clothes. Then, he could head home, take a shower, and head back to the guild to pick up Cana.

He still was not sure that he really wanted to go on a date, but he had no reason not to do so. Besides, he could not claim to have a crush on anyone yet, despite the fact that he had already met some very attractive girls like Lucy, Mirajane, Erza, Laki, Bisca, and, of course, Cana.

He had to admit that it was strange not having romantic feelings for any girl that he knew. In his world, he had always liked Sakura. At the time, he had thought it was love, but he knew different now. In retrospect, he realized that Hinata had liked him, but he had never felt such feelings for her.

_I must be pretty weird. I've only had a crush on one girl in my entire life. That's definitely screwed up._ He chuckled as he thought of his sensei. _Pervy Sage probably would never understand how that's even possible._

Shaking his head away from such thoughts, he made his way to one of the nearby clothing shops that he had passed numerous times before but had never actually been inside.

* * *

It was a few minutes until six o'clock, and Naruto was only a block or two away from the guild.

He had been forced to rush back to his apartment after he finally settled on some clothes. He had purchased completely new clothes and now wore black shoes, black pants, a crimson red t-shirt with a black Fairy Tail emblem on the front of it, and a pair of solid black wristbands.

The wristbands were actually just for show. He was specifically wearing them instead of the ones with his seals on them in order to appear more casual. Still, he had gotten used to wearing wristbands since joining Fairy Tail, so he preferred to have regular ones than none at all.

As he neared Fairy Tail, he saw Cana was standing outside of the doors. She wore a simple black dress that would have fit in well in a nice restaurant or a bar without too much difficulty.

"I'm not late or anything, am I?" Naruto asked as he walked up to her, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Not at all," Cana said with a smile as she eyed his new attire. "I approve. It doesn't look too different, but I can tell it's all new."

"Granny Porlyusica made my other clothes," Naruto said with a shrug. "The clothes they sell at the store is actually more comfortable."

Cana just smiled, not saying anything further about his clothes.

"So when were you going to tell me you fought Erigor after we were knocked out?" Cana asked with a curious look in her eyes. He could tell that she was not angry with him. In fact, she appeared worried.

_Well, I'm probably her closest friend. I know she's mine. So I guess it makes sense._ He took her hand and smiled at her. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want to talk about it."

"Is he still alive?" she asked in a whisper, making him frown. "I'll keep it between us."

"Fine," Naruto said as he began to lead her down the street. "He tried to kill me, but he didn't know I could send reflect elemental attacks. I would've left him there, but it was too close to the base that the Council knew we were going to be doing a job at. It would have gotten back to us, and everyone knows you can reflect attacks with your Card Magic."

"Thank you," Cana said quietly. "Now, where are you taking me?"

"You'll kill me if I take you out for ramen, right?" Naruto asked with a grin. The blank look she gave him only made his grin grow wider. "I thought we'd go to this restaurant a few blocks away. It's called the Blue Sparrow."

"That's an interesting choice," Cana said in a neutral voice. "Is there a reason you want take a date to a cheap restaurant like that?"

"I'm joking," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle. The truth was that he had really intended to take her there. He was used to going to the cheaper restaurants from his time in his world. He had been denied entrance to quite a few restaurants in the Hidden Leaf Village because of his burden. It was easy to forget that he was not treated the same in his new world. "Why don't you pick? You're the one who is paying for this."

Cana groaned, but she did not appear to be surprised. It seemed that she had just been hoping he had forgotten that she owed him money from his bet on the Natsu-Erza fight.

"How about this… I'll pay for dinner, but you have to pick where it is," Naruto suggested with a slightly forced smile. He had a reason that he did not want to pay for it, even though he would if it made her feel better. Cana had a big appetite for liquor. Even though he had around three hundred thousand jewels on him, he did not want to spend most of it on her drinks.

"Come on," Cana said with a smirk as she led him down the street.

* * *

A couple hours later, Naruto and Cana were sitting on the ledge of one of the various apartment buildings in the city. It was towards the richer part of the city, and it was high enough to give them a great view of the city.

They had just finished eating dinner at one of the richer restaurants in town, where they had both had steak. Naturally, Cana had beer with it. It seemed that she could not go long without drinking, after all.

Naruto had to admit that he had enjoyed himself, even if they had not talked much during dinner. Just spending time with Cana was enjoyable for Naruto.

However, he had to admit something else as well.

The date he was on… it was no more enjoyable than when he sat at the bar in Fairy Tail, drinking with Cana. The simple truth of the matter was that he liked Cana, but he did not like her in a romantic way. She was fun to be around and a nice girl, but they did not click like that.

"So this will be our first and last day," Cana remarked, surprising him. "I'm not blind, Naruto. I can see how you feel, and I feel the same. We're good friends, but there's just not a spark." With that, she kissed him on the cheek. "I still had fun though, even if we can't be anymore than friends."

"I did to," Naruto said with a smile. "There's only one thing left to do."

"You gonna take me home?" Cana asked.

"Yep," Naruto said as he stood up and picked her up, surprising her. "And I'm going to do it the ninja way."

With that, he jumped off of the roof and landed in top of the building across the street. He shocked her even further as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, headed towards Fairy Hills.

"You're not supposed to scare me like that," she said as she lightly slapped him on the arm once he set her down on the ground within sight of Fairy Hills. She could not prevent the grin from showing on her face, however.

"It's how I like to get around," Naruto said with a smile.

"I bet," she said with a small smile. She grew serious as she looked at him again. "Naruto, will you tell me the truth about you? I know you're keeping secrets from everyone but the Master, but you can trust me."

"I'll tell you everything soon," Naruto promised. "I'd like to succeed in my goal first though."

"Your goal?" Cana asked, intrigued by his words.

"I want to gain magic of my own," Naruto said quietly. "I'm close too. If my father could… if he could do what he did, then it has to be possible to seal magic inside of me."

"Can't you just seal it inside of you now then?" Cana asked with a frown. She did know some of his skills, so it did not make sense to her why he did not just seal a lacrima inside of him and use it to power his magic. It seemed like that was something he could manage.

"If I sealed a lacrima inside of me, it would be useless once the lacrima was used up," Naruto said, clearly seeing her train of thought. "No, I want a permanent solution, not a temporary one. I think I'm close too."

Cana looked at him carefully, giving him the impression that she was thinking about the enormity of his goal.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the building," Naruto said as he took her hand and led her up there.

_After I drop her off, it's time to start studying Dad's fuinjutsu again._

Nothing was going to stand in the way of Naruto's goal.

He only wanted to be normal in the world of magic that he called home.

* * *

Naruto frowned as he entered his apartment. Seeing where Cana lived made him realize exactly how poor of a place he felt comfortable in.

He had known all along that Cana lived in Fairy Hills, the female dormitory exclusively for Fairy Tail mages. Seeing the building up close… he understood how nice such a place was, even though he never took a step inside. Hearing that almost all of the girls in Fairy Tail lived there, including Erza, had only further made him feel down about his apartment.

Erza had visited him at his apartment, so she what kind of place he lived in.

Thinking back, Naruto realized that she had been shocked and appalled that he lived in such a place, even though she hid it fairly well at the time. It was pretty obvious why she had hid it and never confronted him about it.

Shaking his head away from such thoughts, he walked over to his couch and sat down. Closing his eyes, he entered his mindscape, appearing in front of the book of fuinjutsu.

Confusion captivated him as he saw that the book was open. He always closed it before he left his mindscape. Even if he had left it open, it would not have been to that page though. It was open to the section of forbidden fuinjutsu technique.

He started to simply turn back to a different page, but he stopped upon seeing the name of the technique on the page.

It was called the Chakra Assimilation Technique.

His curiosity was piqued, so he read the first paragraph.

_The Chakra Assimilation Technique is forbidden technique that assimilates the chakra of a target within the user. Unlike chakra absorption techniques, it actually purifies the chakra taken in, converts it to match the user's chakra perfectly, and increases the user physical and spiritual energy to a degree. In short, it forcibly increases the user's chakra reserves permanently by making the chakra of the target one's own._

Naruto stopped reading there, but it was only so he could process what he had read. The seal that the book had been turned to… it was forbidden because it allowed the user to kill another by stealing their chakra and making it his own.

It left him with a question though.

_Why would Dad leave this information with the other seals? No one else has chakra in this world._ Realization dawned on him immediately, making his eyes go wide in shock.

He understood seal theory, which meant that he was capable of modifying existing seals or creating new ones. He had actually modified the various Elemental Sealing Method techniques so he could launch a sealed attack back at an enemy. If he could modify the Chakra Assimilation Technique to absorb magic instead of chakra, then he could truly become a mage.

With his goal in sight, Naruto continued reading about the seal. Once he finished, he worked on copying it down on paper before going to sleep. He needed rest before he enacted his plans the following day.

* * *

Once Naruto was no longer within his mindscape, a figure appeared in front of the book.

It had been child's play to make Naruto find that seal when he did. All he had to do was flip through the book until he had found a seal capable of absorbing energy, and then he just had to leave the book open to that page.

With the knowledge of what kind of man Minato Namikaze was, he had known that something in that book contained the answer to gaining magic. The Fourth Hokage was a very calculating man, after all.

"It looks like I was right too," he said as stepped out of the shadows, revealing that he looked nearly identical to Naruto. After all, he was Naruto's inner darkness. "He'll gain magic soon enough, which means I'll get it too. Then, I'll be able to take over and work on figuring out how to seal that damned fox away for good."

He thought he had everything planned out, but he did not realize just how much he underestimated Naruto.

* * *

Author's Note: And finally, we're close to Naruto gaining magic of his own. Gaining the magic will just be the beginning, of course.

As you can see, Naruto and Cana have decided to just stay friends, but Naruto doesn't actually like Erza in a romantic one at the present. Naturally, there will be repercussions as a result of his date. Team Natsu's reactions to the news will be fun to right.

Anyways, this is the last chapter of the Black Phoenix Arc. The next arc is the Phantom Lord Arc.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	15. Birth of a Mage

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**15. Birth of a Mage**

Naruto took a deep breath as he stood out in front of the home of Porlyusica. He felt guilty about not visiting her since he joined Fairy Tail, especially since he had only showed up there in order to find out more about how magic was stored within a person.

He felt confident that he could successfully use the Magic Assimilation Seal that he had created, but he still needed to tweak the seal so that he did not try to divide magic into physical and spiritual energy like the Chakra Assimilation Seal divided chakra.

"Are you going to stand out here all day?" Porlyusica said from behind him.

He glanced back, surprised that she had managed to sneak up on him. He could not help but smile though.

"It's nice seeing you to, Granny Porlyusica," Naruto said, grinning at the twitch in her left eye.

"You need something," she said, trying to appear seriously and as hateful of humans as she was when they first met.

"I figured out how to gain magic of my own," Naruto said seriously.

"Let's talk about this inside," she said, clearly understanding the enormity of the situation.

Nodding, he followed her into the house.

They took seats in her living room before they began to speak again.

"You said you know how to gain magic of your own. Would you need to replenish it when it runs out?" she asked.

"No," Naruto said, shaking his head. "It would make the magic part of me just like yours is part of you. Once I used it up, it would return over time."

"How?" she asked. She did not even try to hide the puzzlement in her eyes. It was impossible to obtain a permanent source of magic if one was not born with it. That was what she had been taught and believed all her life.

"A distant relative of my father created a technique that allowed him to forcibly steal the chakra of another person with seals. The target's chakra would be combined with their own. They wouldn't gain the target's abilities, but their chakra would grow in strength and size. It would kill anyone that it was used on, but that's not why it was forbidden from being used. Not exactly, at least. It was forbidden because it would allow one person to continually grow in power with everyone that was killed with it. It gave the user incredible power at the cost of lives. After he was defeated, the technique was locked away so no one could use it again. They didn't want anyone to gain that much power again." Naruto said quietly. "I didn't know why my father wanted me to be able to learn it, but I now know. I can use it to gain magic."

"Makarov would never allow you to kill someone to gain magic," Porlyusica said, earning a nod from Naruto.

"I modified the original technique so I can use it to gain magic, but I changed more than just what kind of energy it absorbs. It'll only work on lacrima right now," Naruto said, a little proud of his accomplishment. In all honesty, he was still shocked by how easy learning the seal and modifying it had come to him. It was as if fuinjutsu ran in his blood.

"I see," Porlyusica said with a smile. "How do you plan on getting enough lacrima to do it though? A large lacrima goes for a hefty price, and they don't even come charged."

"I have a guild that would help me if I asked," Naruto said. "I actually already bought some lacrima this morning. They're about the size of bowling balls. I'll take them down to Fairy Tail when I'm ready to do it."

"I see," Porlyusica said with a small nod. "Very well then. What do you need me to do?"

"I heard that it's possible to drain a mage's magic using wind magic," Naruto said, growing serious. "I also heard that you can capture the magic and give it back to the user. I want to know what you actually do when you're returning it to the user."

"I understand. You need to know how it works so it goes in you right," Porlyusica said, earning a nod. "Here it goes..."

* * *

About an hour later, Naruto walked into the guild with a canvas sack slung over his right shoulder. It was large enough to conceal all five bowling ball-sized lacrima without it being too obvious what was inside of it.

As soon as he walked into the building, he heard something that made him groan.

"I heard about your date with Cana last night. Did you score?"

Before he could even figure out who had spoken, a bolt of lightning raced from the bar and struck the speaker. Looking towards the bar, he saw Cana with her cards out.

"You could have let me say no first," Naruto said with a chuckle, earning a few laughs from Macao and some of the other guys around the bar.

"Whatever," Cana said as she turned back to her drink with a hint of a blush on her face.

_I guess she's embarrassed about that guy asking if we slept together._

He shrugged, unaffected by the question. He did not get embarrassed that easily, especially not after spending two and a half years with no one other than Jiraiya.

"Master Makarov, I need to see you in private," Naruto said as he stopped at the bar.

"Very well," Makarov said, turning his eyes to Mirajane. "Mira, you can come with us."

Naruto felt confused, but he did not say anything. Makarov was his boss, and he had to know what was going on.

The three walked down to the basement immediately.

Upon arriving there, Makarov said, "I'm sorry for this, but I told Mira all about you."

His eyes widened in shock while Mirajane nodded with a smile. The thought of his secret getting out scared him, especially since he had not told anyone about it yet.

"It's okay," she said cheerfully. "I won't tell anyone that you're not from this world."

"I am sorry, but it was done as a precaution," Makarov said with an apologetic tone. "If I'm out of town or something happens to me, we need someone around who knows the truth about you. Mira is considered to be in charge when I'm not around, so it made sense to choose her."

"Why don't you seem scared of me?" Naruto asked with a frown. No one reacted so happily at the news that he had a demon in him.

"If anyone understands having a demon side, it's Mirajane," Makarov said with a chuckle. "She was called _the Demon Mirajane_ when she still went on jobs. Her Take Over is called Satan Soul. She takes the form of a demon and has considerable power."

"That's why the demon inside you doesn't scare me," Mirajane said as she walked over to him and hugged him. "Besides, you're too nice to hurt me, so why should I be scared?"

Naruto could not help but hug her back as a few tears fell down from his eyes.

"Thank you," he whispered before they broke off the hug. "It means a lot to hear that."

"Now that that's settled, we need to discuss your actions on your last job," Makarov said sternly. "Mages of Fairy Tail do not kill their opponents. I have told you that before."

"I don't know if he's dead," Naruto said honestly. "I sealed him away in a pocket dimension and burned the scroll that I drew the seal on. I'm not sure what happens to everything in a seal when you destroy it. He might be dead, or I might have just trapped him there for all eternity."

"Am I missing something?" Mirajane asked with a frown.

"Erigor isn't among the living anymore," Makarov explained. It was true, even if he did not know if Erigor was dead or alive. Sealed in a pocket dimension without any awareness of anything… that definitely was not what it meant to live, even if he technically was not dead.

"Naruto, you can't kill your opponents," Mirajane said with a frown.

"What if I reflected his attack back at him?" Naruto asked, making Makarov and Mirajane come to a halt.

"That's a tricky situation," Makarov said with a frown. "If a Blue Pegasus did it, the Council would probably let the mage responsible go by with just a slap on the wrist. They hate Fairy Tail though."

"Let's just keep this a secret between us then," Mirajane said, her voice more serious than normal. "If you really did trap him somewhere that no one can get to him, you shouldn't have to worry about getting in trouble unless you confess to the Council though. Without a body, there can be no crime."

"She's right," Makarov said. "Now, you asked to speak with me in private. What do you need?"

"I figured out how to gain magic of my own," Naruto said, shocking Makarov and Mirajane. He immediately began to explain the seal that he had come up with, which resulted in him having to explain about his father giving him the "book"that he was learned fuinjutsu from.

Once it was done, he said, "In this sack, I have five large lacrima. If I can get them filled up, I can gain magic of my own."

"Okay," Makarov said as he exchanged looks with Mirajane. "You must vow to never to use the technique against a living person though. If you do this for me, Mira and I will personally give you the magic power necessary to fill those lacrima."

"You two have enough magic power to do that by yourselves?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"It would take a fairly large lacrima to hold all of my magic power," Makarov said. "I could fill those up without too much difficulty. It'll just go faster if Mira helps."

"Okay, I promise I won't use it on a living person," Naruto said. "I never go back on my word. That's my nindo."

Mirajane smiled at that.

Immediately, Naruto withdrew the five lacrima and set them on the ground, one by one. Once they were out of the sack, he removed a knife and a brush that he had put underneath them all. The brush was actually intended for calligraphy, but he had another purpose with it.

"While you fill them up, I'll prepare the seal," Naruto said as he tossed the sack aside. Going to the center of the room, he sliced open his left hand with the kunai and threw it into the wall to his right.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Mirajane asked in alarm.

"The seal has to be written in the blood of the user," Naruto said, not quite understanding why she was worried. "In a few hours, you won't be able to tell that I even cut my hand."

"Fine, but you're cleaning it up afterwards," Mirajane said as she turned her attention to a lacrima as she begun to fill it with her magic power.

Naruto immediately used the blood on his hand to draw the seal on the floor with the brush.

The Magic Assimilation Seal was actually a rather large seal array.

At its center was the sign of yin yang, but the line that divided the two halves of the emblem and the circles on each side of the line were not actually solid. They were composed of writing.

He drew five smaller circles around the yin yang seal, which he then connected by lines so that it appeared to form a pentagon. In the center of each of the smaller circles, he drew a pentagram with the point facing upwards. To the right of the point, he drew the kanji for fire. He went in a clockwise direction as he drew the kanji for wind, lightning, earth, and water. He did that with all five smaller circles.

After the kanji were applied on all of the smaller circles, he finished the smaller seals by adding a seal that resembled the emblem that he had worn on the back of his jacket in his world. Unlike the one he had always worn, it rotated in the opposite direction.

Once the seals were complete, he drew a line from each of the smaller seals to the yin yang seal.

"It's ready," Naruto said at that point.

"That's going to give you magic power?" Makarov asked curiously.

"I just have to stand in the center and activate it. The lacrima need to be placed on the pentagram seals around the yin yang seal. When I activate it, the magic will flow through the lines I drew in blood and become part of me. Dad called this as an advanced fusion seal," Naruto explained as he walked over to them and set his brush on the ground. His hand had already stopped bleeding.

"We'll help you put the lacrima up then," Mirajane said as she carried one of them and set it on one of the seals.

Once all three of them had put the lacrima on each of the five smaller seals, Naruto walked into the center of it and stood right over the line that divided the yin half from the yang half.

"Magic Assimilation Seal: Activate," Naruto said as he formed the ram hand sign.

The room was lit brightly as the seals underneath the lacrima began to glow. Then, the lines between the smaller seals began to glow, making the room even brighter.

Once the lines between the smaller seals and the yin yang seal began to glow, Naruto could feel his heart beat so hard that it felt like it would burst through his chest.

Finally, the yin yang seal began to glow, but it only glowed for a few seconds before the seal truly activated.

The magic rushed from the lacrima into the yin yang seal, causing a pillar of light to consume everything within the yin yang seal up to the ceiling of the basement.

The intensity of the light was so great that Makarov and Mirajane were forced to close their eyes.

After a minute passed of the light shining, the seal lost absolutely all of its light and Naruto collapsed to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Once the light faded away and Naruto fell to the ground, Mirajane ran to him to make sure he was okay, but Makarov remained standing where he was.

His ability to sense magic was exceptional, outmatching that of all but a few. He knew that Naruto's technique had been a success. After all, he could feel magic within Naruto.

Much to his shock and confusion, Naruto's magic power exceeded that of the five lacrima that they had filled for him.

"What are the odds that we would have done something so reckless," Makarov muttered, shaking his head. He could not believe that he had not realized what was going to happen as soon as Naruto explained the seal.

It purified the energy before it converted it to match that of the user. Since Naruto did not have magic to begin with, the magic power that merged with him had become signature to him, but that did not really matter.

What mattered was that Makarov and Mirajane, both of which possessed immense magical power, had given Naruto a portion of their magical power. It was not hard to imagine that when their magical power was converted into his, it became more abundant. Though it was more abundant than the magical power that they put in the lacrima, it was also less potent. However, it could easily grow more powerful with training in magic.

"He's just asleep," Mirajane said with relief clearly in her voice. She suddenly looked at Makarov. "What's wrong, Master?"

"It worked," Makarov said as just shook his head. "He now has magical power and chakra within him."

_Porlyusica said that if he had a child with a mage, it would possess both, but I doubt she ever imagined that he would come into possession with both._

"What's going on?" Naruto asked groggily as his eyes opened.

"You've done it," Makarov said with pride in his voice. "You're truly a mage now."

"I guess I am," Naruto said as he looked down at his hands. "It feels weird. I have chakra flowing through my chakra network all the time, but the only time I have so much of it is when I'm using jutsu. But this magical power… I can feel it all even without me doing anything."

"I imagine that it would be a strange experience," Makarov said thoughtfully. "Having magical power is just the beginning though. According to Cana and Team Shadow Gear, you possess a sword that is powered by fire lacrima. Accessing your magic is similar to that, but you must never allow yourself to run out of magical power. If you do so, you might die. I'm not for sure how you'd handle it since you weren't born with magical power."

"I'll teach him to use his magic, Master," Mirajane said cheerfully, surprising Makarov and Naruto. "I'll teach him to use some Transformation Magic as a test."

"Thanks Mira, but I can already transform," Naruto, clearly not seeing how it would benefit him.

"You told me that your transformation is dispelled when someone hits you," Mirajane said with a knowing look. "Transformation Magic doesn't have that weakness. Besides, you might find that you pick it up quickly since you can already use your kind of transformation."

"I won't complain then," Naruto said with a sigh.

"In that case, I'll go and tell everyone that Naruto now has magic and is learning to use it," Makarov said as he made his way to the door. "They're going to start sensing magic being used below their feet, so they should know what's going on first." He then grinned at them. "Besides, they'll wonder what you two are doing alone in the basement if I don't tell them the truth."

"Master, don't make me angry," Mirajane said with a twitch in her eye.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto said, making Makarov turn around before he reached the door. A clone materialized next to him, frowning.

"Why is your clone frowning?" Mirajane asked.

"Why don't I have magic?" the clone asked, confusing everyone present. "I have the same memories as the Boss, but I don't have magic."

"He's right," Makarov said as he looked at the clone carefully. "Perhaps it's because that technique was never intended to be used with magic."

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said, looking at his clone. "If my magical power was split evenly between my clones like my chakra is, I'd have to stop using it."

"That's right," Makarov said, though the clone still frowned.

"Anyways, go and get my other wristbands," Naruto told his clone. "I want to see if I can use that sword, Dynamite Slinger."

"What's this _Dynamite Slinger_?" Mirajane asked curiously.

In response, Naruto laughed nervously.

* * *

Hours passed as Naruto began to learn to use magic from Mirajane.

After about half an hour, his shadow clone had returned and set the wristbands to the side before it tried to dispel. However, Mirajane had asked it to clean the seal off of the floor before it could, and no one could deny Mirajane when she asked for a favor.

So while it spent hours trying to get the blood off of the wooden floor, Naruto learned to access his magic and use Transformation Magic.

As he had found out, Transformation Magic was similar to the Transformation Jutsu. In fact, he had made good progress, learning to use beginner level of Transformation Magic within a couple tries. The intermediate level was what had him stuck though.

The beginner level of Transformation Magic was the transformation of one's body into that of another. In short, it let him turn into Natsu, Gray, and everyone else that he wanted to, but he kept the clothes he was wearing. He had actually laughed at Mirajane's expression when he transformed into Master Bob of Blue Pegasus. She looked pretty shocked. It was probably because he had not been wearing a dress.

The intermediate level of Transformation Magic was the transformation of one's body and clothes into that of another. The hardest transformation that he had pulled off was Erza in her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Mirajane had insisted that he do it since it required more detail than most transformations required.

Even after he got that down, Mirajane had lectured him on the importance of getting in-character after transforming. She told him that a transformation into Elfman would have been pointless if he did not start to speak and act like Elfman.

It seemed that the instant that Mirajane told him that he had completed the intermediate level of Transformation, his clone said that he was done.

"You can go," Mirajane said, looking at the clone. It had finally managed to clean the blood off of the ground.

As soon as it dispelled in a cloud of dust, Naruto dropped to a knee. The memory of everyone's reactions to the announcement that he now had magical powers came to him. Cana had been the only one who was not surprised at the revelation. Everyone had been happy to hear that he had somehow gained magic powers. It had immediately stopped the gossip of him not having any at all.

A blush came to his cheeks as he remembered Cana hugging him before he could leave the guild.

The memory of him picking up his wristbands and taking them down to the basement surfaced, along with Mirajane asking him to clean the floor.

The memories he was recalling… he was sure that they were his, but he had not done any of that. His clone had done so.

_Wait… do I get my clones' memories when they dispel? This is the second time outside of battle that I've used them in a long time. The last time was when I had to carry Cana, Levy, Jet, and Droy to Oshibana. I'll need to test this out later, but I still can't figure out how I didn't realize this before._

"Are you okay?" Mirajane asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Naruto answered as he stood back up. "So are we going on to the expert level now?"

"No," Mirajane said as she shook her head. "It lets you transform into animals, but you don't need to learn how to do it. You're probably tired of learning Transformation Magic anyway."

"Kind of," Naruto admitted. "So what types of magic do you have?"

"Well, I have Take Over, Transformation, and Sleep Magic," Mirajane answered with a far off look in her eyes. "When I'm in my Satan Soul form, I can use Water, Darkness, and Lightning Magic as well. I haven't used it since two years ago though."

"What happened two years ago?" Naruto asked. "I've heard Cana and Gray mention something about two years ago and how it changed you and Elfman, but I don't know what it is."

"Two years ago, my sister died," Mirajane said as she looked at him with tears in her eyes. "It's not a topic anyone likes to talk about. She was your age at the time, and she was very close to Natsu. Losing her… it changed me and my brother, but it was just as hard on Natsu."

"I'm sorry for asking," Naruto apologized as he stepped forward and gave her a hug.

"It's okay," Mirajane said quietly as she hugged him back.

After Mirajane's emotions calmed down, they broke the hug and Naruto asked the inevitable question.

"So what kind of magic do you think I can learn?"

"Tomorrow, you can probably get Master Makarov to let you look through the archives on types of magic. You should probably wait until then to choose," Mirajane said with a smile.

Naruto could not help but raise an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean by that? How would I choose a type of magic? Don't people have some sort of affinity to a certain type?"

"I've never heard of someone being born with an affinity towards a certain type of magic," Mirajane said, shocking him. "Natsu can use Fire Dragon Slayer magic because he was found by a fire dragon. If he had been found by a water dragon or a mage that didn't use fire magic, he could have ended up without fire magic of any kind. Gray can use Ice-Make Magic because he was found by a mage who could use it and she taught him how to use it. The reason Elfman and I both have Take Over magic is because we learned how to use magic together. It has nothing to do with us being related."

"What about Erza?" Naruto asked curiously. "She has Requip Magic and Sword Magic. How'd she learn them?"

"She learned Requip Magic after she joined Fairy Tail," Mirajane said thoughtfully. "She could use Sword Magic to a small extent when she joined, but she mostly learned it after she joined Fairy Tail also. Her Circle Sword spell… the one she uses in her Heaven's Wheel Armor… is a more advanced version of the only one she could use when she joined. That's what I'm told, at least. She joined a year or two before I did."

_So, I could learn any kind of magic I wanted to? That's kind of cool._

"So what are you going to teach me next?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing," Mirajane said with a giggle. "You're relentless with training. Most people would just be happy to reach the intermediate level of Transformation Magic in one day. Your drive to get stronger is pretty good, but I can't just stay down here all day. I work upstairs as a waitress, remember?"

"Right," Naruto said with a smile. "I guess I'll just go and train with a clone out back then."

"Have fun, but let you magic rest. I had you using your magic non-stop over a couple hours. You have to be feeling it by now," Mirajane said as she headed upstairs.

Naruto sighed, realizing that Mirajane was right. He had used up two-thirds of his magic since he started learning to use it. That may have had something to do with the fact that he had a tendency to use more magic than normal, just like he did with his chakra when using jutsu.

He walked over to his wristbands and picked them up off the ground. He removed the ones he was wearing, put them in his pocket, and put the new ones on. The Dynamite Slinger was in his left wristband, but he decided to do as he was told and did not summon it.

Walking up the stairs, Naruto saw that everyone was looking at him with curious looks.

"Were you two fooling around? You guys were down there for hours," a random guy said.

Naruto just groaned. It seemed like people kept mixing him up with Loke. It was definitely a bad thing when Elfman was in the room.

"Behave," Mirajane said as she stood behind the bar. "I was teaching Naruto how to use Transformation Magic. He is now at an intermediate level."

Man! He's a man! Only a man could achieve such a manly thing so quickly!" Elfman declared.

"Prove it. Turn into Mirajane… or Lucy," the random guy said again.

The look that sparkled in Naruto's eye should have been a warning to him, but it was not seen for what it was.

In a puff of smoke, Naruto was replaced with Erza, clad in her Heaven's Wheel Armor.

"What did you just say? I will deal with you most harshly for slandering Mira's name. Die!"

Just as Erza ran at the guy, he fainted, making her stop and grin. She transformed back into Naruto, and he started laughing.

He was soon joined in laughing by everyone in the room.

"He's pretty good at Transformation Magic," Makarov commented.

"He is," Mirajane agreed.

Naruto smiled as he walked out of the guild to start practicing.

* * *

Naruto had been training behind the guild for a while. The sun had actually set several hours ago, but that did not stop him from attacking his clone with everything they had.

It was either the fifteenth of sixteenth clone he had created since they began. The clones just were not sturdy enough to fight him as they were.

In all reality, he was not surprised. He had insisted on using his jian while his clones used a kunai in each hand. He was actually more skilled with a kunai, so they had the upper hand in skill. However, Naruto's blade length was superior, and it was what allowed him to consistently win.

Just as he was preparing to go in for another strike, he used a chakra enhanced jump and leapt away from the spot where he was standing. A massive iron object struck the ground where he had been standing a few seconds later. It looked kind of like an iron column, but he was not sure how anyone could have thrown it at him.

His eyes widened further as the column was swung at his clone, destroying it. The column then began to shrink in size, moving towards the roof of the guild.

A few moments later, a man jumped off of the roof and landed a dozen yards away from him.

He was a tall, muscular man with long, spiky black hair, red eyes with slitted pupils, and numerous piercings. He wore all black and had metal studs in his clothing. All in all, the man looked alarming.

"Who in the hell are you?" Naruto asked as he sealed his jian in his wristband and unsealed a katana from it.

"I'm just the guy that's going to kick your ass and destroy your guild," he said with a menacing grin.

What's your name?" Naruto asked as lightning began to surge around the blade of his katana. "I need to know what name to put on your tombstone."

"I might as well tell you who killed you," he said as he extended his fist towards Naruto. "I'm Gajeel Redfox."

Suddenly, his fist turned to iron and extended towards Naruto in the form of another iron column.

Naruto could not help but wonder why he was being attacked as he prepared to use his Five Element Blade against his new foe.

* * *

**Weapon Corner**

Five Element Blade

The Five Element Blade is not a magic sword. It started out as a simple katana that he purchased the day after Erza began teaching him swordsmanship. With it's black cloth wrapped hilt, its round guard, and its incredibly high quality, steel blade, the Five Element Blade looks like any normal sword. However the five seals on the underside of the guard make it a devastating weapon.

The five seals on the underside of the guard are connected together by a thin line, making a combination seal known as the Five Element Conversion Seal. By activating the seal, he can convert his chakra into any element, but it's limited to the affecting the blade.

In short, the blade can be covered in fire, lightning, wind, rock, or water at will. However, it should be noted that the seal is not a perfect replacement for the real thing. The cutting power of lightning and wind is not quite on par with that of real lightning and wind chakra, while the converted fire chakra is not as intense as the real thing and the converted earth chakra is not as hard as the real thing. However, the conversion to water, is not noticeably weaker.

Fire, wind, and lightning offer increased cutting power, while rock and water offer increased durability.

Note: The Water Conversion Seal on the underside of the blade mimics the Water Prison Jutsu, covering the blade in a thin layer of incredibly dense water.

* * *

Author's Note: And so the Phantom Lord arc has begun and Naruto is officially a mage. I have to say that this chapter turned out far longer than I intended.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Weapon Corner sections. I think it's a good way to explain the swords outside of the narrative of the actual story. I intend to explain all of his swords through these. I don't remember if I did one over Fire Slinger or not, but it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Now that he has magic, Fire Slinger isn't necessary.

Anyways, Naruto and Gajeel fight next chapter. Team Natsu, escorted by Erza, make their reappearance next chapter too.

Now, I hope no one finds it strange that Naruto learned Transformation Magic so quickly. I read the omake where Mirajane tried to teach Lucy, Natsu, and Happy how to use Transformation Magic, and the latter two learned the basic level very quickly.

I also hope that things like the quantity of Naruto's magical power and his shadow clones being unable to use magic made sense.

On a side note, Naruto's transformation into Erza was not what I originally had. I originally had him transform into the form that everyone calls "Naruko", but I felt that it was not a good idea. I seriously doubt that the guys in Fairy Tail would pass out or faint from seeing a naked girl. If he turned into a naked Bob of Blue Pegasus... that would be a different story, but it would no doubt result in someone (possibly Makarov, Mirajane, Cana, or Erza) kicking Naruto's ass. Also, my muse would never forgive me if I did something like that.

Well, thanks for reading and reviewing.


	16. Phantom Lord

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**16. Phantom Lord**

As soon as the iron column came near him, Naruto jumped on top of it and began to run towards the one named Gajeel. His speed and balance were considerable, allowing him to span half of its length before he even realized what Naruto had done. At that point, Naruto slammed the flat of his blade against the iron column and leapt towards Gajeel with his right foot forward.

Electricity coursed through the column, temporarily paralyzing Gajeel. It gave Naruto the opening to hit him in the face with the one attack he had never though he would use before: the Dynamic Entry.

The force of the kick sent Gajeel flying back about fifteen feet. If it was not for the large iron column attached to his arm, he would have gone back even farther than that.

"What in the hell are you?" Gajeel muttered as the iron column detached from his arm. "Let's see you handle this." Suddenly, both of his arms extended into iron columns

Naruto jumped on it again, but he cursed that action immediately. The iron column that he landed on expanded far more quickly than he could run, and it seemed to detach from his enemy's arm with surprising force. It actually sent him flying about thirty yards away.

Looking back at Gajeel, he grimaced. The man had already replaced the iron column that he had just thrown away, and he was starting to swing them both at Naruto. It was easy to see that he was going to try to smash Naruto between them.

He knew blocking would not work unless he entered his one-tailed state. His body only possessed the fortitude to resist such a crippling attack when he used the fox's chakra. However, he had no intention of defending like that.

With a chakra enhanced jump, Naruto went out of the range of the attack. However, he realized that he had once again made a mistake. Right after the iron columns clashed together, Gajeel swung both arms upward, sending both iron columns at him from below.

On instinct, Naruto created a shadow clone and held his right arm out. The clone grabbed him and threw him out of the way just in time. It then dispelled.

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked at Gajeel from where he was in the air. He was doing the same thing that Natsu did when he used Fire Dragon's Roar. And then he began to exhale a stream of iron shards at Naruto.

_Shit! He has to be a dragon slayer. How in the hell am I going to beat a guy who can adapt like this?_

Shaking his head, Naruto cut off the lightning seal on his blade and raised the katana above his head. "Chakra Slicing Wave," he said as he sent a powerful blade of pure chakra at the stream of iron shards.

The attack was not intended to cancel out the Iron Dragon's Roar, and it did not manage to do so. However, it had divided the attack in half, allowing it to pass by him on both sides harmlessly.

Naruto sighed in relief once he landed on the ground. He had no intention of jumping up in the air like that again. His enemy was too skilled at fighting like that.

Despite how calm Naruto appeared as he walked towards his enemy, he was very worried. He had spent close to six hours fighting against clones. He was nowhere near full strength as a result. His chakra was close to full strength, but his body was sore. His stamina had its limits, unlike that of Rock Lee and Might Guy.

"I guess this is my only choice," Naruto muttered as he stopped and formed his signature hand sign. He began to build up chakra and released it into the jutsu as quickly as he could. In one instant, Naruto was fighting his enemy alone. In the next, he was standing among five hundred clones.

"You're a freak," Gajeel said with a grin as held his arm up. "Iron Dragon's Club."

At that, a metal column formed from his arm, but it was even larger around than any of the ones that he had used before. He extended it out and begun to spin around, just narrowly avoiding the guild.

Naruto began to wonder exactly how experienced his opponent was at fighting when his clones were knocked away and dispelled by the attack.

Taking the only advantage that he saw, Naruto activated the lightning seal again and moved in to strike the iron column. Unfortunately, his timing was off, and it slammed into his abdomen with incredible force. It sent him flying away. He completely left the backyard of Fairy Tail thanks to the force behind the attack. In addition to that, it knocked his sword out of his hand, and it fell on top of a nearby building.

Naruto ended up slamming into the ground about a hundred yards from the edge of Fairy Tail's backyard. The force that he hit the ground with was enough to leave a small crater and knock him unconscious.

* * *

Naruto's eyes opened to an unusual sight. He was lying on a large bed that had sky blue bedding on it. Directly across from him, there was a large window with curtains of the same color covering it.

Looking around the room, he noticed that there was some extremely high quality furniture in it. He immediately knew where he was when he saw that there were five ornate liquor cabinets next to the bed. He was in Cana Alberona's room, and he was not sure why.

He rose to his feet, grimacing as his entire body felt as though it had been stabbed by a thousand needles. He walked over to the window and looked through it. He could see the guild from there, and it made him furious.

Metal columns… Gajeel's Iron Dragon's Club to me precise… were sticking out of the guild. It was clear that it had been attacked after he was knocked out, and it was definitely a wreck. It was not actually destroyed though, which was the only thing that let Naruto remain calm.

Naruto looked around and opened the window. Taking a deep breath, he jumped through it, landing on the ground in front of Fairy Hills. His body hurt even more when he did it, but he did not feel comfortable there. Besides, he needed to go to the guild and speak to Makarov. He was the only one that knew who the attacker was, after all.

"Naruto, what do you think you're doing?"

Naruto glanced over his shoulder and was surprised to see Mirajane standing behind him with her arms crossed.

"I need to see the Master," Naruto said, wincing.

"You were at the guild when it was attacked, weren't you?" Mirajane asked with a frown. "Cana found you this morning on her way to the guild. We know how hard you train, so we didn't know if you just ran yourself into the ground or got into a fight."

"I got my ass kicked," Naruto said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Damn dragon slayer," he muttered.

"Did you say _dragon slayer_?" Mirajane asked in alarm.

"Yeah, he said his name was Gajeel," Naruto said as he closed his eyes. In an instant, he was replaced with a perfect copy of the enemy that he had fought the previous night.

"Don't feel bad," Mirajane said as Naruto reverted to his regular form. "The guy you fought… he's the second strongest mage in Phantom Lord."

"Is that a Dark Guild?" Naruto asked in confusion. He honestly did not know much about the various Mage Guilds. He had never heard of Phantom Lord before.

"No, it's a legal guild," Mirajane said with a frown. "We don't get along. We have occasionally clashed on jobs before, but they've never outright attacked the guild. Few would dare. The Council forbid fighting between guilds."

"I see," Naruto said as he began to walk towards the guild. "I'll talk to you later."

"Naruto, you shouldn't be walking around. You hit the ground hard enough to make a small crater. We were hoping you did it by training, but Master didn't believe it," Mirajane said.

"I'm fine," Naruto said as he picked up his pace. "I heal fast."

* * *

When Naruto walked through the doors and onto the steps of Fairy Tail's basement, everyone present looked shocked to see him. It seemed that everyone that was in town except for Mirajane and Elfman was down there, and it also appeared to have been converted into a beer hall with a bar and a number of round tables.

"You're up and walking around pretty quickly," Makarov said with a small smile. "It's good to see that you're not hurt."

"I'd be better if a dragon slayer didn't attack me after I was trained for six hours straight," Naruto deadpanned.

"So it was Gajeel Redfox, wasn't it?" Makarov asked with a frown.

"Yeah, that's what he said it was," Naruto said as he made his way down the stairs. His body was no longer as sore as it had been initially, which was definitely a good thing. "I was too tired to stand a chance against someone like him."

"You're pretty amazing," Cana said from the bar. "You survived a fight against an S-class mage after you were already exhausted." By the murmurs throughout the room, it seemed most of the people present agreed with her statement.

"He probably just couldn't find me after he hit me with that iron column," Naruto muttered as he walked over to an empty table and sat down.

"Naruto," Makarov said, earning his undivided attention. "I will not allow them to attack a Fairy Tail mage without consequence. The only thing stopping me from declaring war on them right now is that you're not injured. However, that alone will not stay my hand. I give you a choice right here and right now. If you say the word, then we will attack their guild and show them that we are not to be trifled with."

Everyone looked at Naruto expectantly as the room grew quiet. The enormity of the question made the room grow tense.

"If the best they can do is attack someone that's worn out from training and to attack an empty guild, then they're not worth it," Naruto said, doing his best to make it seem as though he felt that way. In all honesty, he just did not want anyone else to get hurt because of him. Besides, he would feel better if Erza, Natsu, and Gray were back before anything like that happened.

"Very well then," Makarov said with a nod. "I imagine that you wish to start learning magic now."

The tense atmosphere of the room turned to a curious one at that point.

"What magic would you like to learn?" Makarov asked.

"I can wait," Naruto said with a sigh, confusing everyone. "I figure Erza would be the best teacher I could get, especially since I'm going to learn to use Requip and Sword Magic."

"That's an interesting choice, especially after you've already shown that you can use a form of caster type magic," Makarov commented.

"Call me interesting then," Naruto said with a shrug as he stood up and unsealed the Dynamite Slinger from his left wristband. Taking a deep breath, he began to manipulate his magical power and interact with the sword with it. Before his eyes, the blade started to turn red. It grew brighter as he did it. He immediately lessened the magical power that he had in the blade, making the blade mostly return to its original color. It still had a red tint to the metal though.

"Naruto, let's see how good you are," Cana said as she flicked a bottle cap at him.

Naruto just swung the sword at it. Upon contact, the bottle cap exploded, shocking her along with most of the people present.

"So that's how the Dynamite Slinger works," Naruto murmured as he headed upstairs. "I'm going to go practice out back."

Before he got out of earshot, he heard her say, "I can't believe I didn't recognize it. He let me see it once before."

* * *

Naruto took a deep breath as his final shadow clone had dispelled.

He had created a hundred of them, and each one had the Dynamite Slinger. Naturally, he was the only one who could actually use its magic. He had made sure not to activate its magic when he fought them one at a time though. It seemed that its last wielder had a problem using it without using its magic. Given how dangerous the sword was, he thought it would be a good idea to practice using it as a sword instead of some kind of bomb.

Suddenly, he spun around and swung the sword, deflecting a knife that had been thrown in his directly. As it fell harmlessly to the ground, he could not help but smile. The knife would have passed right by him without harming him, and it was clear that it was done on purpose. After all, the woman before him would not try to actually hurt him, especially not with the smile that she had on her face.

Erza Scarlet had come back to town.

* * *

Erza could not help but feel shocked and furious when she saw what had happened to the guild. Her focus on seeing Natsu, Gray, and Lucy punished for doing a job that they were not supposed to do had shifted to making sure everything was okay. She was even more worried when they reached the guild and she heard Mirajane say that Phantom Lord was behind it.

Entering the basement of the guild, she was a little relieved to see that no one was injured, but the cheerful look on Makarov's face had her stumped.

"Welcome back," he said as he waved from the bar with a mug of beer in his hand.

"Thank you," Erza said, glancing around the room.

"Old man, this isn't happy hour!" Natsu yelled, clearly panicked by what he had seen upstairs.

"Right you are," Makarov agreed with a stern look. "How dare you go on an S-class job without permission? I'll give you your punishment now."

Suddenly, his arm lengthened and he smacked them. He hit Natsu, Happy, and Gray on the top of the head while he spanked Lucy, earning a glare from Mirajane, who had just walked through the door.

"Behave Master," Mirajane said with a frown.

"Master, this situation is serious," Erza said, gesturing to the guild around them.

"They wrecked our guild!" Natsu shouted.

"Calm down. It's nothing to worry about," Makarov said dismissively. "If all we they can do is attack an empty guild and get into a fight with a guy who is exhausted, we have nothing to worry about."

"Empty guild?" Erza asked.

"Who did they attack?" Lucy asked, alarmed.

"They attacked in the middle of the night. The only one who was here was Naruto, and he was out back training," Makarov said with a shrug.

Erza's eyes widened with fear. "Is he okay?"

"He's out back training right now," Makarov answered with a nod. "He'll be happy to see you. He wants you to teach him to use Requip and Sword Magic."

"But he can't use magic," Erza said with a frown. She did not understand why he seemed to encourage Naruto trying to learn it since he knew it too.

"He has magic of his own now. I was with him when he used a technique of his to gain it," Makarov said with a grin. "Mira taught him Transformation Magic yesterday. He's at an intermediate level right now."

The prospect of someone who had not possessed magic gaining it surprised her, but she kept her calm. Naruto was a special individual with powers that no one understood. If anyone could achieve such a feat, it was him. Gray had apparently come to the same conclusion, whereas Natsu and Happy were oblivious to why that was such an accomplishment.

"Why aren't we going to destroy them?" Natsu half-asked and half-demanded, bringing up the most important subject in his mind.

"Naruto doesn't want us to go to war with them on his account," Makarov said seriously. "I let him make the choice. He chose the safety of his comrades over his pride."

"His pride?" Natsu asked with a frown.

"Yes, he was beaten rather thoroughly," Makarov answered with a nod. "He was found a hundred or so yards away from the guild unconscious. To make matters worse, the perpetrator was another dragon slayer."

Natsu's eyes went wide at that.

"Iron Gajeel, the second strongest man in Phantom Lord," Erza said with a frown. She was not sure exactly how Naruto would stand up against such a man when he was at full strength, but she knew how hard Naruto trained. If he was out back in the middle of the night, then he had to be worn out when the fight began. Shaking her head, she said, "I'm going to go and see him."

"Erza, please keep him company tonight," Mirajane said, making the room grow incredibly quiet. "Phantom Lord was in Magnolia. It's possible that they looked up where each of us live. No one should be alone tonight."

"Why don't you ask Natsu or Gray?" Erza asked with a mix of emotions.

"Natsu and Happy will probably be staying with Lucy," Mirajane said, making Lucy groan while the dragon slayer and magic cat nodded. "Gray's closer to Lucy than Naruto as well, so he should probably stay there as well." The ice user nodded at that.

"I wouldn't feel right letting a girl of marriageable age spend the night in an apartment with those two," Erza said with a frown.

"Well, I suppose he could stay with Cana instead," Mirajane said thoughtfully. "He did spend the night there and they did go on a date, so I'm sure they're comfortable sleeping in the same room."

Erza turned to Cana with an emotion that she had not often felt: jealousy. She did not understand why she would be jealous, but she could not deny that she was jealous of Cana for going on a date with Naruto. The sleeping in her room the previous night did not bother her at all. After all, they had made it clear that he was found unconscious. He was no doubt carried there in such a state.

"No," Erza said, shaking her head. "Since you're talking about him staying at Fairy Hills, then I should take responsibility. As the Head Girl of Fairy Hills, it would be rude to not allow him to stay in one of my rooms. As you recall, I have five conjoined rooms, thus giving him more room. Plus, I can better teach him to use his magic there."

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Mirajane smirk, but such an expression was not on her face when she turned to look at her. Glancing at Natsu and Gray, she said, "Lucy, tell me if either one of these two do anything inappropriate. I will punish them dearly if they do."

With that, she headed to the doors so she could go and meet up with Naruto. The entire time, she could not help but wonder what had happened between Naruto and Cana. If she were honest with herself, she would have admitted that such a thought scared her.

However, she was not completely aware of how she felt about the blond.

Upon arriving behind the guild, she could not help but smile as Naruto finished off one of his clones. He was using some kind of short sword. Though she was curious as to why he was using it, she decided to get his attention without saying a word.

She used her Requip Magic to bring out a simple knife. She threw it towards him, but she made sure to aim it so that it would harmlessly fly by him. Much to her surprise, and pleasure, he spun around and deflected the knife with the short sword, grinning the entire time.

She could not help but smile at the sight of his grin.

* * *

"It's great to see you," Naruto said as he walked up to her.

"I am glad to see you as well," Erza said sincerely. "It sounds like you've been busy since we last saw each other."

"I have," Naruto said with a nod. "I took out a Dark Guild with Cana and Shadow Gear's help, I figured out how to absorb the magic from lacrima and make it my own, and I fought this iron dragon slayer last night."

"You also went on a date," Erza reminded him. The emotionless look she gave him sent a chill down his spine. She did not appear angry. In fact, she did not appear to have any feelings on the matter. However, Naruto had learned to read girls decently over the years. She was not pleased about it for some reason.

"Yeah, I did," Naruto agreed. "It was just a one-time thing though. We decided to just stay friends. We didn't hit it off or anything."

"Oh," Erza said as she looked at him. He could tell that she was pleased by that information, even if she tried not to show it.

"Anyways, I have a favor to ask," he said.

"You want me to teach you to use some magic?" Erza guessed. "I can understand why you want to learn. Requip Magic and Sword Magic are formidable. I pictured you as the type that would want to learn elemental magic though."

"Like this?" Naruto asked as he summoned Fire Slinger from his wristband and swung it away from them, releasing a small blast of fire. "I'd rather fight up close and personal than stand back and send magic attacks at my enemies. Magic like yours would let me do that, but I could still use swords like this and attack from a distance when I need to."

"I think I see what you're planning," Erza said with a pleased smile. "You don't want to use my style of Requip Magic, the Knight. You want to have your own that is more focused on magic swords."

"That's about right," Naruto said as he sealed Fire Slinger away. "And this is the first sword for my collection, Dynamite Slinger." He handed her his short sword when he said that.

She looked at the sword as a slight red tint covered the blade. She tapped it against the ground, smirking as it blew a hole where she hit it.

"Once you get stronger, we're going to have to have another fight," she said as she returned the sword to him. "Until then, you can follow me. We're going to go to Fairy Hills. You're spending the night in one of my rooms tonight. No one is allowed to be alone at night until this conflict is dealt with. They may attack us at our homes, after all."

"Okay," Naruto said as he created a clone and sent it to his apartment to get some clothes and his toothbrush. "As long as I get to learn magic, I don't really care where I have to sleep."

Erza just rolled her eyes at that statement, but she continued walking nonetheless.

* * *

Author's Note: And there you have it. Naruto will be staying with Erza for the duration of the Phantom Lord arc. In addition to that, he will be learning Requip Magic and Sword Magic. Eventually, he may learn a degree of Telekinesis like Erza has used in the series, but that's not certain at the present time.

This chapter should have been out sooner, but it wanted to be longer than planned.

Just to clarify things, Erza is jealous that Naruto and Cana went on a date. She is aware that she is jealous, but she doesn't realize that she likes him. It might not make sense, but the heart rarely does. She knows that Naruto and Cana are good friends, which naturally increases the jealousy. I wouldn't call her feelings for him anymore than a crush for now though. She respects him for his strength and admires him for the kind of person he is. She doesn't truly know who he is deep down yet though.

Oh, and I know I'm going to get asked this, so I'll answer it now, along with a few other possible questions that you may have.

**Q:** Why are you having Naruto learn Requip Magic when he can just use Summoning: Lightning Blade Creation like he has been using?

**A:** Requip Magic is faster. Watch Erza's fight with pretty much anyone. The speed she gets new weapons and new armor is pretty amazing. In addition to that, I think it's cool for him to learn to do something that is similar to what he could already do, especially since it, like Transformation Magic, is incredibly proficient at doing one certain thing. If Naruto's going to use a large number of magic swords, then he might as well have the ability to switch swords with a single thought.

**Q:** If Erza has _The Knight_ and Bisca has _The Gunner_, what is Naruto's special brand of Requip Magic called?

**A:** Naruto's type of Requip Magic is called _The Swordsman. _It focuses on the requipping of magical swords. In terms of sheer speed, he will be able to requip swords even faster than Erza can. However, he will not wear armor at all. He might eventually get a magic coat or something that resists fire (maybe in the design of Naruto's Sage coat), but his ability to requip clothing will only be practical outside of combat. It will be too slow to use in combat.

**Q:** What's the purpose of giving Naruto magic swords? You could have just given him elemental magic. Makarov has demonstrated the ability to use several elements, even if they were only low level spells.

**A:** I could have given him one form of magic and let him keep branching off to different elements. However, I did this with a plan. I like Naruto having Requip when he's paired with Erza. Besides, he will eventually have a large number of swords with different abilities. Let's say he needs to use fire magic. He can just requip a fire sword. Maybe he needs ice magic. He can just requip an ice sword. His fighting style is centered around offense. His defense is a strong offense. In a way, his style is the exact opposite of Erza's.

**Q:** Will he get a better fire element magic sword? Fire Slinger's nice and all, but it relies on lacrima.

**A:** Fire Slinger was Naruto's first magic sword. However, it will be replaced in his arsenal and given to another character. It's simply too limited because of how it's powered. It would run out of power too quickly compared to how a magic sword that was powered by his magic would.

**Q:** Will Naruto go Four-Tails and launch a Tailed Beast Bomb at Phantom Lord's Jupiter?

**A:** I have to laugh at this one. I did consider it, but do you remember how weakened Naruto was after he went Four-Tails and fought Orochimaru? He couldn't walk far without falling down, and he had Sakura to try to heal him at the time. He could probably destroy the Jupiter pretty easily with that attack, but I can't see it doing anymore than destroying the Jupiter Canon and the lacrima inside it. Sure, that might kill the fire user of the Elemental Four, but he would then be immobilized for the rest of the fight.

**Q:** If Naruto isn't going to go Four-Tails and take out the Jupiter, then will Erza block it like in canon?

**A:** I cannot answer this question. It might happen that way, but there isn't a definite answer yet. I cannot know exactly what's going to happen before I write it. Characters don't follow scripts, unfortunately.

**Q:** Is there any chance of Naruto/Mirajane?

**A:** Yes. I might write a fic of that pairing after this is finished. It's too early to talk about that though. Regardless, they will not have a romantic relationship in this fic or go on a date at all. And please don't ask if I'll write a lemon between Naruto, Erza, and Mirajane. It's not going to happen. I'm pretty persistent about not having any multiple partners relationships in anything I write, even if it's just for a fling.

And here's the final question!

**Q:** Why did Naruto lose to Gajeel? Natsu beat him in canon, and Naruto beat Natsu already.

**A:** Natsu gets regular power ups. He was a lot weaker when he beat Bora than he was when he started fighting Gajeel at the end of the Phantom Lord arc. Even so, Gajeel was winning until Natsu managed to get some fire. I'd say that Naruto's right at Gajeel's level right now, to be honest. However, Naruto avoided using the Nine-Tails' chakra and was physically exhausted from training six hours straight. If he had used the Nine-Tails' chakra, he would have forced Gajeel to retreat. However, that would have put me in a bind in regards to writing this arc. Him wrecking the guild is a necessary step so things can progress smoothly.

Oh, and a special thanks for reading and reviewing. I am now the author of the third most reviewed Naruto/FT crossover.


	17. The First Step

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**17. The First Step**

Naruto looked up at the sign that read _Fairy Hills_ with a hint of a frown on his face. Despite his earlier proclamation that he did not care where he stayed as long as he got to learn magic, staying there was not something he was too happy with. It was a very nice place, and it was the dormitory for female members of Fairy Tail.

"You've never been inside before, have you?" Erza asked. She immediately shook her head at her words. "I mean, the only time you've been inside was when you were brought here after the attack on the guild, right?"

"The only room I've ever seen was Cana's," Naruto said with a nod. "I jumped through the window to get out too."

"I'll give you a tour then," Erza said as she waved him onward and moved to the doors.

Naruto nodded, though he was unsure why he even needed to have a tour.

The first room they entered was shaped like a rectangle, being longer than it was wide. To the left, there was a couch with a coffee table in front of it. To the right, there was a desk, similar to what one would find in a hotel where people would check in.

The rest of the room was not too widely furnished. There were a few doors and a staircase at the end of the room, but that was it.

"This is the lobby," Erza said as she began the tour.

* * *

She ended up showing him the public bath area and the library. Naturally, she had informed him that the former was off limits to him and there would be serious repercussions if he tried to peep on any of the girls that bathed there while he stayed with her.

After she had shown him around, she brought him to the second floor and opened a door not too far from where Cana's room was.

As they stepped through it, Naruto could not help but be shocked.

They were not just in a single room. The room conjoined with two other rooms on each side, though the room to the far left was the only one with a door to it. The other rooms had armor and swords decorating the walls.

"There's a limit to how much you can store within your pocket dimension," Erza said as she shut the door. "The armor and swords that you see in here were removed from my pocket dimension because they either took up too much space or I didn't use them often enough. As such, I had to rent five rooms. As you can see, only one of them is used as a bedroom. That is where we will both stay. There is a bathroom inside the room, so you may shower there tonight."

"Not that I mind sharing a room with you, but are you sure that's a good idea?" Naruto asked. "I doubt you have two beds."

"I suppose it would be inappropriate for us to sleep in the same bed," Erza said, giving Naruto the impression that she had never considered such a thing before that moment. "Very well then, I'll just take a bed from one of the unrented rooms and bring it in there."

"Is there enough room for that?" Naruto asked. If it was anything like Cana's room, there would not be enough room for a second bed, after all.

"How often do you see me in town?" Erza asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not that often," Naruto admitted. "Well, you were in town for a little while when you were helping me learn to use a sword."

"That's correct. I spend a great deal of time doing jobs," Erza said with a nod. "As such, I am not the type who stays here on a regular basis. Someone like me does not keep too much in my room."

"What about the demon horn that you showed up with before we went to deal with Erigor?" Naruto asked curiously. "That has to take up some room."

"You mean that one?" Erza asked as she pointed to the far right room, making Naruto see the decorated demon horn against the wall. "Regardless, we should not waste time talking for now. Sit with me on the floor. I will begin to instruct you on the basics of Requip Magic."

Naruto immediately sat down, curious as to what she was going to teach him.

"The first step to learning to use Requip Magic is accessing your pocket dimension. Once you can access it, I will teach you to store and withdraw weapons from it. If you thought my training was hard before, think again. Before it's time to eat dinner, you will be able to requip that short sword of yours. The speed that you can do it won't be practical for battle. Not at first, at least. However, you must start somewhere," Erza said as she began to explain to him the specifics of how Requip Magic worked and how he could access the pocket dimension that every mage had, even if they never learned to access it.

* * *

Naruto wiped the sweat from his brow as he once again went to the task of requipping the Dynamite Slinger. He had actually managed to figure out how access his pocket dimension and store a single object within it in about an hour. Erza had praised him, much to his surprise. She had speculated that his skill with storage seals no doubt helped him learn it so quickly. If not for that, she told him that she would have thought that he was a prodigy.

However, things grew difficult from there.

It had taken a full hour to requip the Dynamite Slinger after that.

The second time, it took forty-five minutes.

The third time, it took thirty minutes.

The fourth time, it took fifteen minutes.

His progress had slowed at that point, only managing to requip a minute faster each time. It had slowed down even more after that though. After reaching ten minutes to requip his sword, he had managed to replicate it three times in a row. It still took ten minutes.

It took a mere second to store a sword with his Requip Magic, but it took six hundred times longer to take it back out. To make things worse, Erza had informed him that it would only get harder to speedily requip a sword once he stored multiple weapons in the pocket dimension.

"How's your progress?" Erza asked, breaking Naruto's concentration. He looked at her, surprised to her walking towards him from her room. She had told him to practice while she moved a bed in there, which had naturally surprised him. After all, he did not think she could move a bed around so easily. Her strength was far greater than that of a normal girl, as she had reminded him.

"It takes me ten minutes," Naruto said as he exhaled a deep breath. "My magical power's getting low too."

"That's not bad," Erza said with a nod. "If you must fight before your speed at it gets under a minute, then just make sure you have your sword on you or in one of your seals. But that's not a matter we should discuss. I'm going out to dinner. Would you like to remain here or come with me?"

"I'll come with you," Naruto said as he rose to his feet.

"In that case, follow me," Erza said as she turned to the door. "If you'd like, I'll tell you what you've missed since you've been gone."

"I'll tell you what you've missed after that," Naruto said with a grin, earning a smile from her.

* * *

Much to Naruto's surprise, Erza had picked his favorite restaurant in town. To be accurate, it was the only ramen stand in town, a place called Magnolia Ramen.

When a large bowl of miso ramen with roasted pork fillet was brought before Naruto, Erza smiled. "I've been told you like ramen. This is definitely the best place to get it. Once the guild is fixed up, you should try to get Mira to make you some though. She's a great cook. She once told me that you've never eaten at the guild."

Naruto nodded. He knew that there was a kitchen in the guild and that they did not just serve alcohol, but it was cheaper to just go home and eat packaged ramen. That was actually why he had only ate at Magnolia Ramen twice before. He was trying to save up as much money as he could. Originally, he had not done so for any particular purpose. At the present, there were actually things that he wanted to buy, but he did not quite have enough.

"So what happened with getting Natsu and the others back?" Naruto asked as he broke his chopsticks apart.

"Ah, I suppose I'll begin now," Erza said with a nod. "As I understand it, they arrived on Galuna Island the morning that I left, and I arrived that night. The job that they had accepted was to destroy the moon, apparently. From the island, the moon appeared to be purple. The purple moon was the cause of their condition."

"They condition?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yes," Erza said with a nod. "They believed it caused them to look like demons. But I'll get back to that later. You see, I showed up with the intention of immediately taking them all back home. However, that did not work too well."

"I can tell," Naruto said with a chuckle. It had been a few days since she left, after all.

"Well, it turns out that the purple moon was the result of a spell known as Moon Drip. It is said to have the power to dispel any magic. A group of mages wished to use this spell to free a demon from its imprisonment within a large block of ice that could not melt," Erza explained. "I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but the demon's name is Deliora. It caused a large amount of destruction a few years ago before it was imprisoned by an Ice-Make mage at the cost of her life. Like Lullaby, it was one of Zeref's demons."

"So you decided to stick around and help them do the job?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Not really," Erza said with a frown. "I saved Lucy from an enemy and found Gray the following morning. I tried to take him back, but he refused to come with me. The job had become personal to him. Deliora destroyed his home and orphaned him several years back. He was then taken on as an apprentice by an Ice-Make mage named Ur."

Naruto suspected that he knew what had happened in Gray's past immediately. Ur no doubt imprisoned the demon in the block of ice that could not be melted that Erza had mentioned. Since Deliora orphaned him, it was highly possible that Gray had sought revenge. And if this Ur was anything like one of Naruto's past teachers, she was willing to sacrifice herself for him. The pieces only began to fall into place after that.

"Evidently, he trained alongside another boy named Lyon, who strove to surpass Ur. Things became conflicted when Ur imprisoned Deilora with Iced Shell, a self-sacrifice technique that traps whatever it is used on within a large block of ice that cannot be melted," Erza continued. "Lyon came to the conclusion that he could finally surpass Ur by killing Deliora, so he gathered some followers and brought the frozen demon to Galuna Island, where he used Moon Drip. After three years of the Moon Drip ritual, Deliora was almost free from its imprisonment. Gray intended on stopping him regardless of what anyone else thought."

"So you guys helped stop it in the end?" Naruto asked.

"We helped," Erza said as she shook her head. "Deliora was freed in the end. However, we all underestimated Ur's Iced Shell. She was able to drain the demon's powers over time. It died moments after being freed. So with Lyon and his comrades beaten and Deliora dead, we decided to deal with the purple moon before leaving. The purple moon was actually the result of an _evil lens_ that was formed as a side-effect of Moon Drip. It was literally a lens that floated above the island. After we shattered it, the villagers' condition was fixed."

"So they turned back into humans?" Naruto asked.

"No," Erza said with a chuckle. "The villagers of Galuna Island are actually peaceful demons that are capable of changing their appearances to be human. The _evil lens_ made them forget that they were demons. They thought that they were cursed because of the purple moon as a result."

"It sounds like you had a fun adventure," Naruto said. In all honesty, he wished that he had been there. He had never met a good demon before. Actually, he had never met a true demon before at all. The Nine-Tails was not truly a demon, after all. It was, however, the closest thing his world had to a demon.

"We did," Erza said between bites of her ramen. "So are you going to tell me what happened for you?"

Nodding, Naruto began to explain the job to take down the Black Phoenix Guild, his innocent date with Cana, and his preparations to gain magic.

She stopped him after he mentioned Porlyusica though.

"You know her?" Erza asked in shock.

"Yeah, she was the one who suggested that I join Fairy Tail," Naruto said with a nod. "You know her?"

"Yeah," Erza looked away. "She's the one who gave me my right eye."

"Your right eye?" Naruto asked, thrown off by the statement.

"I lost my right eye when I was eleven years old," Erza answered vaguely. "Master Makarov took me to Porlyusica and asked her to see if she could do anything for me. She managed to create an artificial eye that works just as well as my real one." She paused for a moment before continuing. "To be honest, it's better than my left eye. It cannot be affected by magic."

"My sensei only had one of his original eyes too," Naruto said, smiling at the memory of Kakashi. It was getting easier and easier to deal with the man's absence.

"I don't believe I've ever heard you talk about your past," Erza commented.

"Would you like to know about my past?" Naruto asked curiously, surprising himself by the question. He was not sure why he would be willing to share his past with her, but he felt that she deserved to know the truth. Perhaps it was wrong of him to think it would be better to tell her before Cana, but he felt a connection with Erza. He could not explain it, but there was just something about her that he liked.

"I'd be lying if I said otherwise," Erza admitted. "No one knows much about you other than Master Makarov… and perhaps Porlyusica."

"I'll tell you about it when we get back to your room," Naruto promised. "I want you to tell me more about Phantom Lord and their rivalry with Fairy Tail first."

"Very well," Erza said as she pushed her now empty bowl away from her a little bit. "Phantom Lord has been considered to be the strongest legal guild for quite a few years now. The rivalry… feud, really… began six years ago at the Regular Meeting between the Guild Masters. I was thirteen at the time, so the only S-class mages we had at the time was Gildarts and Laxus. Anyways, Master Makarov began to brag about Fairy Tail, prompting Jose Porla of Phantom Lord to start bad-mouthing our guild. Sooner or later, they fought. I'm not sure who started it, but they were both members of the Ten Wizard Saints, so it was a pretty serious fight. Master Makarov won in the end without causing too much damage, and Phantom Lord's Master refused to go to any of the Regular Meetings since then."

"I see," Naruto said with a frown. He thought it was a stupid reason to start a feud.

"The thought of a war between our two guilds makes me nervous," Erza admitted. "Right now, I am the only S-class mage in town. Laxus and Mystogan are busy on jobs. Gildarts… well, he's been on a job for three years, and I doubt we'll see him again for a while."

"What about Mirajane?" Naruto asked. "She's still an S-class mage."

"She is," Erza agreed. "However, we can't count on her to fight. She lost her will to fight two years ago."

"I don't know if I could have handled her death as well as Mira has," Naruto said, earning a nod of agreement from Erza. "How tough is Phantom Lord though? I might be able to match their second strongest member next time we fight."

"You might," Erza agreed. "However, they have more members than we do. In addition to that, they have four S-class mages other than the one you fight. They are called the Element Four. Aria of the Heaven, Juvia of the Deep, Sol of the Earth, and Totomaru of the Conflagration are four mages with incredible skill in their elements. Without Mystogan or Laxus around, we would be evenly matched with them."

"Let's hope that they don't attack again then," Naruto said with a sigh.

"We can hope," Erza agreed.

Neither one of them believed that it would happen though.

"Here's the bedroom," Erza said as she walked through the doors of her room. The right side of the room was a little smaller than that of the previous rooms, seeing as how the bathroom and closet were built against that wall. Other than that, the room was pretty simple. There were two full-sized beds, one with simple white bedding and the other with blue bedding, against the wall opposite from the door with a nightstand in between them. Directly against the wall on the left side of the door, there was a short, wide dresser. Other than the few swords that were hanging on the wall in the room and the door at the left side of the room, that was the extent of its furnishings.

"I will be going downstairs to bathe. Go ahead and shower up here while I do that. It would be best to do that if we're going to share a room," Erza said. "When I get back, you can tell me about yourself."

Naruto nodded absently as she headed out of the room and headed to the public bathing area.

He still felt weird about being inside the girl's dormitory, but he did his best to deal with it. Ninja were supposed to be able to adapt quickly, after all.

* * *

About an hour later, Naruto was sitting on the white bed in orange pajamas with black trim. It made him feel a bit nostalgic to wear his old colors. Shaking his head, he tried to figure out what to do while he waited for Erza. He knew that she would not be too happy if he practiced his Requip Magic. After all, his magical power still had not fully returned.

Looking around the room, he saw a book with a black cover on it. Not even looking at the title of the book, he picked it up and opened it. He flipped through to the first chapter and began to read it out of boredom.

He thought it was a romance novel or something at first, but his eyes widened by the time he finished the first chapter. It was definitely not a romance. It had more in common with Jiraiya's books than a romance did. The only big difference between it and Jiraiya's Make Out series was that he could tell that it was written for women.

"Reading anything interesting?" Erza asked from the doorway. She was dressed in lavender pajamas with a pattern of dark purple crosses on them.

Much to his shock, she looked curious instead of angry.

"I was just curious," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle as he set the book back down.

"Ah," Erza said with a nod. "Levy gives me some of her books when she's done reading them."

"Interesting choice," Naruto remarked, glancing at the book.

"I trust you won't speak of my taste when it comes to reading, will you?" Erza asked with an almost dangerous look in her eyes, making Naruto nod vigorously. "That's good. Now, I'd like to hear a little more about you."

Naruto pursed his lips but nodded. He patted the bed before sitting up, causing Erza to sit on the other side of the bed.

"You know that far away land that I tell everyone I'm from?" Naruto asked seriously.

"Yes," Erza answered with a frown. "Are you not really from a far away land?"

"I am," Naruto answered with a laugh. "It's just a lot farther away than you think. I'm not good with words, so I'll just tell it how it is. I'm not from Earth Land at all. The Elemental Nations, the land I come from, is in another world altogether. If you don't believe me, ask Master or Granny Porlyusica. Mirajane knows too since the Master told her after the Lullaby Incident, but I doubt she'll admit it to you without his permission."

By the look on Erza's face, she was shocked, but there was something else in her eyes. She was suspicious. It was an outlandish claim, even if it was the truth, so he could not begrudge her for that.

"In my world, there were no mages. We had ninja. Like me, they manipulated a mix of spiritual and physical energy called chakra. With it, they could use ninjutsu and genjutsu, along with a few obscure things like fuinjutsu," Naruto said, deciding that he needed to get it all out there. "There were ninja villages in that world instead of mage guilds, and we did jobs pretty much the same. Ninja villages were the military power of the countries though, really. There was only one village per country, and we had even more classifications. While you have regular mages and S-class mages here, they had genin, chunin, special jonin, jonin, and ANBU Black Ops there."

Naruto continued from there, explaining the details of his world, but he stayed away from his personal life as he explained it.

After he finished, Erza looked down at the bed, deep in thought. She stayed quiet for at least ten minutes before she finally spoke.

"You wouldn't tell me a story like this unless it was the truth. You're not stupid enough to pull a prank on me when I will talk to Master Makarov about it tomorrow. Am I right in this assumption?" Erza asked seriously.

"Yeah," Naruto answered with a small smile. "I don't have a death wish."

"Good," Erza said as she looked him in the eyes. "Then tell me about your life."

"Well, it all started fifteen years and nine months ago," Naruto said as he begun to tell her all about him.

* * *

Hours later, Erza looked at Naruto from her bed with a frown on her face. She had acted like she was sleeping so she could get him to fall asleep.

After everything she had learned from him, she could not help but be a little shell shocked. What he had told her had been insane, but she believed that it had all been the truth as well. The things that he had told her about his life had trumped the knowledge that he was from another dimension though.

The burden that he carried at all times… his life as a jinchuriki without anyone who really cared about him until he was twelve… the animosity that he had faced throughout his life when he was growing up… the betrayal by his best friend at the place in his world called the Valley of the End… the loss of everything that he had cared about when he arrived in Earth Land… the knowledge that his father had been the one to place the burden upon his life… she did not know how he could possible smile or feel happiness under those conditions.

Even her past, as bad as it was, did not quite compare to his own. Even so, she felt she could understand him. Sasuke betrayed him like Jellal betrayed her, and they both understood what it meant to be treated badly.

After hearing all that she heard, she could not help but feel guilt. She felt that she should have told him about her past, but she could not bring herself to speak of it after so long.

That guilt kept her awake.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I had a little difficulty writing the last part, so it's not as good as I would have liked.

Oh, and just to be clear, I've never heard of Fate Stay Night before, so nothing came from it. And the Dynamite Slinger is a sword of my own creation. I've never watched or read Rave Master.


	18. War on the Horizon

Author's Note: Just to clarify before you start reading, I'm using the exchange rate between jewels and dollras that the Fairy Tail wiki lists. As such, 100 jewels is 1 dollar. That would mean that Lucy pays $700(70k jewels) a month on rent while Erza pays $5,000 (500k jewels) a month on rent. Fairy Hills charges 100k jewels a month per room, if you recall. Anyways, it's important to know the exchange rate if you pay attention to the figures that are thrown around.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**18. War on the Horizon**

The next day, Naruto was in the third room of the ones that Erza had rented. As with the day before, he was practicing his Requip Magic.

As it was almost noon, Naaruto had been practicing storing and withdrawing the Dynamite Slinger for nearly six hours straight. His magical power was getting pretty low, but the training was all worth it in his opinion. After about ten hours of practice between the previous day and that one, he had achieved something that he had not expected to manage so soon.

He had gotten his speed at requipping down to one minute. It was still pathetic compared to Erza's speed, but his speed with it would allow him to use Requip Magic in combat if he prepared properly. Naturally, prepared properly actually meant him standing back while he used it as his clones fought.

Dynamite Slinger appeared in his hand as he retrieved it from the pocket dimension again. Just as it appeared in his hand, the door opened and Erza looked at him with panic written clearly over her face.

"Training's over for now," Erza said with a grim look in her eyes. "Tonight, we are all boarding the train to Oak Town. We're going to war with Phantom Lord."

Naruto grew panicked at that. "What happened?"

"Team Shadow Gear was found in the park a few hours ago. They're in the hospital, but they'll make a full recovery. I would have been back sooner, but Master wanted to discuss our plans. We'll attack tomorrow morning when they're all there," Erza answered with more than a hint of worry in her eyes. "Master suggested that Mira, Lucy, and you stay behind."

Hearing that angered Naruto. He wanted to make Phantom Lord pay for harming Levy and the others. He did not have to think too long about his outrage though.

"I convinced him to let you come," Erza said. "If the Element Four, Gajeel, and Jose are all there, then we'll need you. Laxus and Mystogan are still out of reach, not that Master would wait for them if they weren't. He's furious at what they've done."

"I understand," Naruto said as he took a deep breath. "What do we do until then? We probably won't leave for another eight hours."

"You're coming with me," Erza said matter-of-factly before she took his hand and pulled him out of the room.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"To the store," Erza answered. "I want to see if they have any new kinds of armor before we leave."

"So I'm coming with you?" Naruto asked with a hint of humor in his eyes.

"If you want another sword you will," Erza said as she let go of his hand and continued to walk towards away from the room.

Naruto immediately shut the door and followed after her. He was not about to give up a perfectly good chance to get a new sword. Dynamite Slinger was nice and all, but he would have preferred something that did not explode.

* * *

"Magnolia's Arms and Armor, the best place to find high quality magical arms and armor in Fiore," Naruto muttered, reading the sign above the rather large shop.

Walking in it with Erza, he saw that the shop's inside was twice the size of Fairy Tail's beer hall. To his left, he could see a large array of weapons on the wall and hanging from racks. To his right, he could see a large number of suits of armor decorating the place. He immediately spotted the Fire Empress Armor and what appeared to be a male variation of it.

Shaking his head, he saw that directly in front of him, there was a large desk with a large man behind it. He looked like a mountain man, to be honest.

Erza walked right up to him and greeted him.

He began to walk towards the weapons. As he did, he heard Erza say, "Do you have any new suits of armor?"

"I'll never know how you do it. I hear you pay half a million jewels every month on rent, and you still buy every new suit of armor that comes in," the burly man said with a chuckle. "Anyways, there is one new suit of armor. It's one that you asked me to special order for you."

"Oh?" Erza asked, sounding intrigued.

"The Sea Empress Armor came in yesterday," the man said, catching Naruto's full attention.

_If the Fire Empress Armor gives the wearer a resistance to fire magic, then I guess the Sea Empress Armor does the same for water magic._

"How much will it be?" Erza asked.

"A quarter of a million," the man answered.

"That's a bit steep," Erza said. Even though Naruto could not see her face, he knew she was frowning.

"I can't sell it to you for the same price I bought it. I wouldn't make any money that way," the man countered.

"Is the Sea Empress Armor anything like the Fire Empress Armor?" Naruto asked as he walked up to them.

The man looked at Naruto curiously, clearly wondering who he was.

"Yes, it is," Erza answered. The look in her eyes told Naruto she had no idea what he was doing.

"I think you shouldn't buy it then," Naruto said as he looked her in the eyes. "Fire Empress Armor would have to be more valuable. It's more useful around here. Fire mages are more common than water mages after all."

"What's your point?" the man asked gruffly.

"The Fire Empress Armor has a price tag of one hundred thousand jewels. You're trying to charge more than twice as much for a less useful one," Naruto said with a serious look in his eyes. "I bet you didn't even pay seventy-five thousand for it."

"I agree," Erza said with a nod. "After this job, we should go and pick some up from somewhere that actually carries it in stock. Master wouldn't have a problem letting us go, after all."

Naruto immediately realized that she was actually tricking the man behind the desk, so he just nodded in agreement, playing along.

"I can't sell it any less than a hundred fifty thousand," the man said with a sigh.

"Very well," Erza said with a nod. "I intend to get my friend here a sword too."

"Just a normal magic sword?" the man asked with a frown.

"No," Erza answered, shaking her head. "I have more of those than I can carry. I'll just give him one of those. What I need from you is a magic sword with a special ability."

That surprised the man greatly. "A magic sword with a special ability… those aren't as common as your armor, but we do have a few."

"What kind of abilities do they have?" Naruto asked.

"We're only talking about swords in the twenty-five thousand range too," Erza said, making the man frown again.

"I only have one magic sword in that price range. To be honest, no one wants it," the man said as he walked over to the wall and lifted a sword from it. Though its pommel, hilt, and guard looked like that of a normal sword, its blade did not. Only one of the sides of the blade had an edge. There was a flat side on the other side, much like a katana. It was not curved though, and its blade was much wider.

"A falchion," Erza remarked as she looked at the sword. It had a blue wrapped hilt, and the rest of the metal truly shined.

"It's called the Enemy Slayer," the man said with a snort. "It's a misnomer. The bastard that sold it to me was just trying to scam me. Even when I sharpen the blade, it can't cut through anything."

"Let me see that," Erza said as she held out her hand. Once it was handed to her, she felt the blade with her left hand and nodded.

"I'll give you twenty thousand for it," Erza said, shocking the man and confusing Naruto.

"Deal," the man said with the type of grin that only conmen wore.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Erza said as she handed him one hundred-seventy thousand jewels.

"The same," the man said, clearly thinking that he had outmaneuvered her. "I'll go and get the armor for you."

"Thank you," Erza said with a nod.

Once he went into the backroom, Naruto looked at her curiously.

"That man does not own the store. He is just hired to work here because no one expects a small man to run a weapons shop," Erza said quietly. "Fortunately, the fool that just sold us that sword had no idea what he was in possession of. It's amazing that he even has magic."

"He has magic?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Erza responded. "That sword cut me." With that, she showed him her left hand. It had a thin cut across it. "Its magical ability forms some kind of barrier around the blade. Look at the pommel carefully."

Starting intently at the pommel, he saw that there was riding around the edge of it.

"Only foes may be cut by this blade," Naruto read. Erza then flipped it over, and he read the writing around the edge of the other side of the pommel. "Never shall it spill the blood of an ally."

"It's not a useless sword," Erza said simply as she handed it to him. "Now, try to remember the most important thing about having four swords. It will be much more difficult to requip."

Naruto looked confused at that. "Dynamite Slinger, Fire Slinger, and Enemy Slayer… that's only three."

"I'll give you a bastard sword when we get back to my place," Erza said with a patient nod. "Swords with special abilities are nice, but it's also a good way to run out of magical energy in a hurry."

"Thanks," Naruto said, but she looked away instead of replying.

_I doubt I'll ever understand her. At least she took my secret well._

After they were done at the store, Erza had taken Naruto to the hospital so they could see their wounded comrades. Not long after showing up, Erza had to go off and keep Natsu under control, so Naruto was the only one in the room.

He could not help but frown as he stood in the room with Levy, Jet, and Droy. They looked worse than he had thought they would. From the way he was told that their limbs were fastened to the tree in the park by iron, he was willing to bet that it had been the one named Gajeel.

He was beginning to wish more and more that he had used the Nine-Tails' chakra against the dragon slayer. If he had, he probably could have put him out of commission.

"Don't allow hatred to cloud your heart," Makarov said from the door, catching Naruto's attention. "I understand your desire to see them in a better condition, but wishing you could have acted differently is a waste of time. It is especially bad for you when you wish you had crippled or killed another person though."

"I know," Naruto said with a frown. "I think I made a mistake. I should have chosen to fight Phantom Lord before this happened. I knew they were going to try another attack. I just hoped that they wouldn't."

"Hope is not something you should ever give up," Makarov said as he walked up to him. "Trust in yourself and believe in others. Mankind has the capacity to do great things. If you do not have hope, however, then you only limit yourself."

"I will think on that, Master," Naruto said as he turned to face the old mage. "I wanted to inform you that I told Erza everything though."

Makarov simply smiled at that. "You certainly don't have trouble believing in some others. That's very good. I don't suppose you two have had any nighttime fun since you temporarily moved in together, have you?"

"Ask her yourself," Naruto said, pointing behind him.

Makarov turned around, only to be confronted by Erza in her Heaven's Wheel Armor.

"How dare you insinuate that I've had relations with Naruto?" Erza asked in an outraged tone. "Forgive me Master, but I must make you pay for your insinuations."

Suddenly, Makarov turned around and ran towards the window before jumping out of it. He was lucky that it was already open.

Naruto started chuckling when he saw Makarov land on the ground and continue running.

"Good work, Mira," he said as he turned to Erza, who was replaced with Mirajane within seconds.

"You're pretty good at detecting transformations," Mirajane commented with a smile. It seemed that she was the only one who could consistently smile no matter what.

"Master panicked. That's the only reason he didn't detect it," Naruto said with a shrug, making Mirajane's eyes widen.

"You can detect my magical power, can't you?" she asked in astonishment.

"No," Naruto said with a shake of his head. "I can't sense just anyone's like Master can. I'm able to sense Erza's when I'm close to her though. She's the only one. If you transformed into Cana, Lucy, or any other girl, I wouldn't be able to figure it out."

Naruto noticed a sparkle in Mirajane's eye, but he did not ask about it.

"Could you figure out it was me if I transformed into a boy?" she asked, clearly avoiding what was on her mind.

"I have a good sense of smell," Naruto said with a nod. "Guys and girls smell different."

"Natsu never told us that, and he has enhanced smelling," Mirajane said with a slight frown.

"And he's the most observant guy around," Naruto deadpanned, earning a giggle from Mirajane.

"I can see why she likes you," Mirajane said with a smile.

"Who likes me?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Forget I said anything," Mirajane said, suddenly becoming aware of what she said.

"Fine," Naruto said with a sigh. "I want you to make me a promise though."

"It depends what it is," Mirajane said, unsure of what he intended on asking.

"When the time comes, do what you know is right," Naruto said, growing far more serious than normal. "You might have gotten a little weaker in the last two years, but I can tell you're still the second strongest girl in Fairy Tail. Don't let fear stand in your way when you know that fighting is the right thing to do. You're strong, and I believe in you."

With that, Naruto gave her a smile unlike anything she had ever seen from him. It seemed to brighten the entire room up.

Before she could say anything else, Naruto headed towards the door.

"Good luck holding down the fort," he said as he left the room.

As soon as he was outside of the room, he saw that Erza was leaning against the wall with a smile on her face.

"Come on," she said, waving him over. "Let's head back to the apartment. Your magical power should be mostly back by now. By the time we head to the train station, I expect you to be able to requip any of your four swords in under a minute."

"Right," Naruto said as he left the hospital with Erza.

* * *

Naruto sighed as he collapsed into his seat on the train. It had been a long day, and it was just the beginning.

After visiting the hospital, Erza had decided to spend six hours with Naruto, helping in his training. Thanks to her, he had managed to learn to requip between any of his four swords in fifty-nine seconds. It was only slightly better than one minute requips, but Erza had not allowed him to take a break before it got under a minute, so he had been thrilled to get it to that speed.

Unfortunately, he only had about five percent of his magical power left. His magical power was slowly growing in size, but he still did not have enough to requip as many times as Erza could without getting tired. She had personally shown him that she could requip a hundred different weapons in one minute, so he knew exactly how low on the totem pole he was with his powers.

Still, he looked forward to a long nap on the train ride to Oak Town.

Sighing, he looked around.

Excluding Mirajane, Lucy, and Team Shadow Gear, every member of Fairy Tail in Magnolia was on board the train. He was sitting across from Erza with Gray to his left. Natsu was unconscious to Erza's right with his head in her lap.

When everyone arrived in Oak Town, things would become hectic. One thing was for certain. Phantom Lord would learn just how strong Fairy Tail was.

"I'm going to go to sleep now," Naruto muttered as he laid his head back.

He relaxed when he heard Erza tell him to sleep as long as he could.

He had no plans of resting his mind for the entire train ride though. He had been slacking on his training as of late. He had to practice his sword skills, he had to work on his Requip Magic, he needed to learn Sword Magic, he needed to work on the ninjutsu that he currently possessed, and he needed to learn more about the seals that his father had left behind in his mind.

Before he allowed himself to truly fall asleep, Naruto memorized five more seals. None of them looked particularly helpful for the fight ahead of him, but he had to use every weapon that he could get his hands on.

* * *

**Weapon Corner**

Enemy Slayer

The Enemy Slayer is a very special sword. Its magic is similar to Fairy Law in a way. When its magic is active, the sword cannot cut anyone, or anything, that the user does not truly believe to be an enemy. The magic of the sword is more powerful than most realize. If an enemy were to transform into an ally without the user of the sword knowing it, then the sword would still cut through the transformed enemy. Illusions cannot fool the blade's magic.

The Enemy Slayer does not simply become dull when it moves to strike an ally. A barrier forms around the sword, preventing it from even coming into contact with the ally. As such, it is impossible to kill someone the user perceives as an ally, even if they were to strike at them with the sword in the hopes of using blunt force.

There is an added effect of the sword that can only be accessed through sword magic. The Enemy Slayer's magic can be turned from a weapon against enemies to a support-type magic for the user's allies.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, I am 22 reviews (at the time of this post) from being tied for second place among the most reviewed Naruto/Fairy Tail crossovers. I can hope to surpass Fire Shadow of Fairy Tail one day, but I'm still over 300 reviews away from such a feat.

Anyways, I hope everyone liked the Enemy Slayer. It bears the same name as a sword that a friend created, but it's a sword of my design. It's not _that_ strong of a sword, to be honest. However, I'd like for Naruto to get stronger and stronger swords as the fic goes on.

Now, the next chapter will focus on the attack on Phantom Lord, whereas Chapter 20 _should_ focus on the entire final battle between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. I say _should_ because I'm nto that great at having my short-term plans hold on. They consistently change on me.

Before I bring this author's note to a conclusion, I just want to tell you that I'm starting to think about side/background pairings in the fic. The only pairing that is decided for sure is Naruto/Erza. Everyone else is still under consideration. I don't care if you suggest pairings, but I'm more likely to listen to the polls that I regularly put up.

Well, thanks for reading. Next chapter, Naruto and Gajeel get the long awaited rematch that you've all been waiting for... two days of waiting makes it a long awaited rematch, right?


	19. Assault on Phantom Lord

Author's Note: Here's an advanced warning. This is a shorter chapter than usual. (Slightly less than 3k, excluding author's notes) This particular part was hard to write, especially when it wasn't exactly that great of a part in the series itself. If I had chosen to focus on Lucy's point of view as she's captured, Makarov's point of view when he goes to confront Jose, or Natsu's when he goes to rescue Lucy, it would have been longer. However, what's the point in writing something that is absolutely no different than canon?

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**19. Assault on Phantom Lord**

It had to have been a strange sight for the residents of Oak Town to see about seventy Fairy Tail mages walking through town towards Phantom Lord's building, but they never tried to run ahead of the visiting mages to warn anyone or anything of the sort.

Naruto had been prepared for that though. Erza had told him that Phantom Lord was not like them at all. They were known to threaten clients to get bigger rewards, and they were only continually used because they were the strongest guild in Fiore, right alongside Fairy Tail.

As they neared the guild, Naruto sighed. He had not prepared for the attack as much as he should have. His Five Element Blade was still lost in Magnolia. He had forgotten that he lost it until they were almost to Oak Town. It appeared that he would need to search for it after the fight with Phantom Lord.

Shaking his head, he came to a stop along with his comrades. Makarov was at the front of their group, as was excpected of him.

"Natsu, go ahead and knock on their door," Makarov said without looking at the young dragon slayer.

"On it," Natsu said as he dashed towards the doors and hit it with his Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon. He easily knocked the doors off their hinges and sent them inside the building. Immediately, the rest of the Fairy Tail mages ran after him, entering the guild.

"What in the hell is going on?" one of the Phantom Lord mages asked in surprise.

"We are Fairy Tail!" all of the Fairy Tail mages declared before the moved into action.

Makarov grew into his giant form as he began to fight.

The only one who did not immediately use magic was Naruto. In fact, he was not even looking at the mages that were standing before him.

"What are you doing?" Erza asked in confusion.

"I'll let you handle these guys," Naruto said as his eyes stayed on the man that was standing on a cross beam between two of the building's support beams. "I'll fight Gajeel."

With that, he used a chakra enhanced jump and caught into a cross beam not far from the iron dragon slayer. Flipping onto it, chakra covered his right fist.

"So, you survived," Gajeel commented with a grin.

"You could have killed me if you wanted to," Naruto said with a shrug. Mentally, he counted off the seconds as he worked on bringing the Dynamite Slinger out. He just needed to distract his enemy until then. "Sure you could've found me."

"Your clones didn't die when you were knocked out," Gajeel said as he shook his head. "Damn things kept me busy. By the time I wrecked that shithole you call a guild and found you, someone was already carrying you off."

"That's nice to know," Naruto said as he leapt towards Gajeel with a chakra enhanced leap and punched him in the face. It sent the S-class mage flying into a support beam, literally going through it.

Right after Gajeel went through the support beam, the Dynamite Slinger appeared in Naruto's left hand. Seeing it, he moved it to his right hand and began to build up his magical power in the sword. Jumping towards Gajeel, he could not help but grin as the Iron Dragon's Club shot towards him.

He brought the bright red blade down and hit the end of the Iron Dragon's Club with ease. The instant that it did, an explosion shattered half of the club, charred several of the support beams, and cracked the closest support beam to them.

Naruto flew back from the explosion, but he simply did a back flip and landed on the cross beam that he had been standing on when he leapt at Gajeel earlier.

"Damn that hurt," Gajeel muttered as he landed on the ground. His eyes widened as he saw that Makarov and Erza were right in front of him.

"Batter up," Makarov said as he picked Gajeel up and threw him at Naruto, shocking most of the present Phantom Lord mages.

"Iron Dragon's Sword," Gajeel said with a grin as he neared Naruto. His right arm turned into a large, jagged, steel blade at that. He thrust if forward, using the momentum that Makarov gave him through the throw. His intention was clearly to slice through Naruto.

_I hate doing this, but I'm going to have to do it. I can't just dodge his attacks and use sneak attacks. That wouldn't be very inspiring to my comrades. They'd think I was losing._

As Naruto knew, morale was a big factor in group combat.

As Gajeel neared him, Naruto's sword disappeared and red chakra seemed to explode from his body. He entered his one-tailed form in an instant and caught Gajeel's sword between his hands, bringing him to a stop.

Everyone looked shocked at that, but Makarov just chuckled, further scaring the Phantom Lord Mages.

"Erza, you're in charge here. I'm going to go to the top floor and deal with Jose. Keep your eyes peeled for the Element Four," Makarov said as he shrunk down in size and began to walk towards the stairs, his magical power knocking everything out of his way.

"What in the hell are you?" Gajeel muttered as Naruto held him in the air by his sword.

"I'm your worst nightmare," Naruto said before he threw Gajeel threw the wall to his right, sending the dragon slayer flying out of the guild.

"Jump!" Naruto yelled as he jumped off of the cross beam with his fist pulled back.

The Phantom Lord mages looked confused when all of the Fairy Tail mages jumped in the air. And then they saw Naruto. All of the red chakra that had surrounded him moments earlier was surrounding his right hand. The skin on his hand was actually peeling away from the concentration of malicious energy.

As he landed, Naruto punched the ground and released the concentrated chakra. It sent a shockwave throughout the room, knocking all of the Phantom Lord mages on their backs.

"Guns Magic," Bisca and Alzack said immediately.

"Ice-Make," Gray called out as he landed on the ground.

"Wood-Make," Laki said as she readied one of her spells.

"Card Magic," Cana said as she withdrew a few cards from her deck.

All of the Fairy Tail mages had their spells ready to strike the downed opponents at that moment. As they launched their attacks, Erza yelled.

"Naruto, look behind you!"

A large metal spear was rushing towards his back. Its source was Gajeel, who was standing in the doorway out of breath.

"You asked for it," Naruto said moments before he was hit. Suddenly, he was replaced by a wooden log.

The real Naruto appeared behind Gajeel.

"Secret Finger Technique: A Thousand Years of Death!" Everyone could only watch in horror as Naruto stuck his index and middle fingers forward in the least expected place and sent Gajeel flying across the room, slamming into the stairs. He managed to land safely enough, but his hands were covering his rear and he looked absolutely furious.

"That's it! I'm going to kill you!" Gajeel yelled as his body began to grow covered in metal scales. He immediately jumped down the stairs and dashed towards Naruto with a fist pulled back.

Naruto's body once again was covered with the Nine-Tails' chakra cloak as he dashed forward to meet the iron dragon slayer in combat.

Everyone could only watch on as they saw something that shocked them. Naruto and Gajeel both landed a hit on each other, right on their cheeks.

Both of them were sent flying backwards with incredible force. Gajeel crashed into the stairs while Naruto went straight out the door way.

Neither of them rose to their feet.

_Damn, he's strong in that form. I can't believe he hurt me like that when I'm using the Nine-Tails' chakra._

He shook his head as the chakra cloak faded. He had known that it would not last too long. He had never used the Nine-Tails' chakra multiple times in such a short period of time before.

Naruto managed to sit up just in time for him to see Makarov fall and hit the ground. He looked far more ill than he had ever looked before.

Within minutes, Erza called for a retreat, shocking Naruto.

Still, he got to his feet with Gray's help and ran away from the guild alongside his companions.

* * *

When they were several miles away from Oak Town, everyone stopped for a short rest, though it was mainly because Erza realized that Natsu was nowhere in sight.

"Don't worry about him," Naruto spoke up. In turn, he received silent prayers for speaking against Erza. "Happy's gone too. They're probably together, which means that Natsu will show up sooner or later. They're a bit reckless, but they won't die or get captured, so we don't need to worry about them."

"I guess you're right," Erza said with a small sigh. "I'm just worried about us all, especially Master."

Naruto nodded as he looked at the man. "He lost his magical power, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Gray answered. "That's a good guess since we haven't talked about it in front of you."

"We need to get him to Porlyusica," Naruto said with a frown. "She might be able to treat him."

"Can you help him the same way you gained magic?" Erza asked, catching everyone's attention.

"Yeah, but I won't," Naruto answered as he looked at Makarov. "He'd never forgive himself if I did it."

"What are you talking about?" Gray asked in confusion. It was clear that he was confused about that and the part about Naruto being unwilling to help him.

"I can reverse the technique that gave me magic, which would drain my magic and give it to him," Naruto answered as he looked at them. "I'd probably die if I did it. I know what kind of man the Master is. He'd never forgive himself if I died to help him."

No one could dispute his words. It would have indeed been a big burden on their leader if Naruto gave his life to save him. In addition to that, they would not have been happy to see Naruto die. He was well accepted as a member of Fairy Tail, after all.

"What's the plan?" Naruto asked.

"We'll take the train from the next town to Magnolia. Once there, we'll bring the Master to Porlyusica and begin preparations for our next step in this war," Erza answered.

"I have a better idea," Naruto said with a look of determination in his eyes. "Set up camp somewhere. I'll go to Magnolia on my own. Once I get there, I'll summon you guys."

They all looked at him incredulously at that.

"Last night I learned a new technique," Naruto said as he looked Erza in the eyes. "I can place a special seal on anyone. I can then summon them to my location in an instant. It'll take a lot out of me, but I can pull it off. As it is, I doubt we should be moving the Master around in his current condition."

"You're right," Erza said with a sigh. "Put that seal of yours on each of us then. After that, Reedus can create a wagon and you two can go on without us. You'll be able to move faster that way."

Naruto frowned, but he did not argue. "Fine, I'll do it."

With that, he began to apply the seals to all of the members of Fairy Tail there. He could not help but be thankful that one of the seals he had learned the previous night had come in handy.

* * *

About six hours later, Naruto was standing behind the guild with Reedus.

They had already told Mirajane the bad news about Makarov, and they had in turn heard more bad news. Apparently, Lucy had been captured that morning. She had searched everywhere for the blonde, and she was sure that Lucy was nowhere in town.

Still, he had a job to do. He began to build up his chakra as he formed the hand signs for the standard summoning jutsu in reverse order and without drawing blood. Upon forming the final hand sign, he slammed it to the ground.

In a large cloud of smoke, the other members of Fairy Tail appeared before him.

Immediately, Naruto told them where Mirajane had told them about Lucy, but Gray's words relaxed them all.

"Natsu went off on his own, remember? One of the guys in the guild must have said something about Lucy. Natsu would definitely go off to rescue her if he heard something like that," Gray said.

It was exactly what they would have expected from Natsu, so they just had to hope that Gray was right and that was what had happened.

Before Naruto could process anything further, he passed out from chakra exhaustion. Apparently, his chakra had not recovered fully from fighting Gajeel and creating sixty-eight summoning seals six hours ago. Combining that with his summoning of so many people had wiped him out completely.

* * *

Erza sighed as she worked on removing the iron clubs that were still sticking out of the guild. She wanted to remove them and board the holes up by day's end. Many of the other members of the guild were at the hospital, getting their injuries checked on.

It had been a pretty bad defeat for Fairy Tail, even if Naruto had done as well as he did against Gajeel. Naruto was still asleep though, and more than half of the guild had injuries. The others were resting at home in an attempt to have their magical power return in full force.

The only ones at the guild at that moment were her and Mirajane, both of which were set to the task of doing minor repairs before they worked on planning everything the next day.

Both girls were beating themselves up over something. Mirajane was upset that she had not kept an eye on Lucy while everyone else was away, and Erza was upset that she had not gone with Makarov. She could have stopped him from losing his magical power if she had been there.

The silence of their work was broken as Mirajane spoke.

"So I heard that Naruto fought Gajeel Redfox again."

Erza nodded absently, throwing one of the iron clubs outside.

"What was it like? I've never seen Naruto's full capabilities," Mira asked. "More of the others are calling him the Kitsune because of his fight though."

"He is original," Erza said as she shook her head and faced Mirajane. "He was the only one who saw Gajeel when we went into the guild. He immediately jumped up and began fighting him. It was completely one-sided at first. Naruto literally threw him through the wall and knocked all of the other Phantom mages down with a shockwave."

"So he won?" Mirajane asked. "Naruto told me he didn't win before he summoned you guys."

"Gajeel attacked him from behind a few minutes later. Naruto actually used that substitution technique of his to dodge it and get behind Gajeel. Then he… he did the last thing I ever thought he would," Erza said with a hint of a blush on her face. She still could not believe he did something so… unexpected. She told Mirajane exactly what he did that made Gajeel furious, and the white haired girl could not stop from laughing.

"He's original," Mirajane agreed.

"Anyways, metal scales covered Gajeel after that happened, and he tried to attack Naruto. Naruto entered his one-tailed state and attacked Gajeel as well. They both took each other out of the fight," Erza said.

"Did you say _one-tailed form_?" Mirajane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He told me everything," Erza said seriously, shocking Mirajane. "I know all about his past and what he has inside of him."

"You're the only person he's told other than Master and Porlyusica," Mirajane said as the surprise gradually wore off. "He must trust you."

"He does, but I don't know why," Erza said before she resumed her work.

That was all that the pair said until they left the guild after they were done.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, there's the chapter. I'm not particularly happy with it, but I've got to admit that I'm finding the Phantom Lord Arc to not be that fun to write. Let's be honest. If Makarov had never gotten his magic taken away, the fight wouldn't have lasted _that_ long. Let's say it still got to the final fight. He's already displayed he can bat a blast away from a Jupiter cannon with his arm when he's in his giant form. He did it when Hades had one shot at him from his ship. Outside of that, Makarov basically finished the entire battle with a single attack, Fairy Law.

Next time I do this, and I do intend for there to be a next time, I might just have Erza (or Naruto) go with Makarov and prevent him from ever losing his magic. That's not something that I can recall every seeing before too.

Anyways, next chapter will focus on the revelation of Lucy's past and the battle between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. For the sake of convenience, I'm saying that the battle between them is a day after Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord's initial battle.

Here's a one question Q & A to end this with.

Q: What's the point in the Enemy Slayer? Sure, it can't hurt an ally, but you could just have him be careful where he swings it.

A: The sword's primary ability is not its most useful one. Naruto can't use its most useful, and powerful, ability at tje present time. When I described the sword in my notes, I wrote this: "A falchion that can only harm enemies and inspire allies." The Enemy Slayer's Might, its most powerful ability, shines a radiant light in the area. Anyone that the wielder considers a friend receives a power-up of sorts.

To clarify something, I feel that it's necessary to explain the Enemy Slayer's powers a bit more clearly. The sword's power depends largely upon the user's perceptions of his foe. If its an ally, it won't cut them. If it's an enemy with little feeling attached to them, it cuts normally. If it's an enemy that he absolutely loathes, its cutting power is increased.

Just having the sword doesn't mean anything though. Naruto has yet to actually learn to use his sword magic, which is why he can only use the most basic abilities of the Dynamite Slinger and the Enemy Slayer. He needs to master them in order to truly become formidable with them.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	20. Fairy Tail vs Phantom Lord

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**Phantom Lord Arc**

**20. Fairy Tail vs Phantom Lord**

It was the day after the attack on Phantom Lord's base, and all of the Fairy Tail mages were gathered in the basement of their base.

They all either looked injured, exhausted, or stressed. Some appeared to be all three.

"And that's why they attacked Fairy Tail. It's all my fault," Lucy said as she concluded her tale of her capture and rescue.

"No, it isn't," Naruto said as he looked her in the eyes. "Phantom Lord wants Fairy Tail destroyed. If you had joined them, they still would have attacked us. The job your father gave them… it was just an excuse for them to go through with it now."

"He's right," Erza agreed without a hint of hesitation. "No one here cares that you're a Heartfillia. All that matters to us is that you're part of the Fairy Tail family."

Everyone voiced agreement at that, especially Natsu and Happy.

"Still, we need to prepare," Erza said after a few moments. "We need to plan our next move carefully. They won't let us go too long before they attack us. Without the Master in good health, we'll be in a serious bind if they send Gajeel and the Element Four after us. I'd hate to imagine what would happen if Jose came as well."

"I'll try to get a hold of Laxus," Mirajane said from behind the bar. "We should have a Communication Lacrima somewhere around here."

"I've tried to find Mystogan, but there's been no luck," Cana said with a sigh. "I'm going to head to the hospital. Levy's awake now, and I want to see if she made any progress on a project of hers before she was attacked. It might help us."

"Project?" Erza asked curiously.

"Go ahead," Naruto told Cana before turning to Erza. Only after Cana was outside of the guild, he said, "Levy was working on creating a version of my paper bombs that uses magic instead of chakra. I gave her a book two days before she was attacked. It contained the seal theory that makes fuinjutsu possible. If she managed to figure it out in those two days, then we'll have a new weapon."

"Why do we even need it?" Macao asked with a puzzled look. "We have explosive lacrima."

"Explosive lacrima weight at least half a pound each. Paper bombs are literally small pieces of paper. They're close in destructive power too," Naruto answered without a hint of hesitation. "If Levy figured out how to replicate, then we'll have a weapon that our enemy has never seen before."

"Interesting," Erza said with a nod. "Well, I'll leave the planning to you guys for now. I'm going to take a shower. I'll discuss everything with you guys when I'm done."

With that, she walked upstairs so she could go to the showers that were actually in one of the backrooms of the guild.

As she did that, Mirajane found a large lacrima on a stand and put it atop the bar. After a few minutes, a blond man in his twenties appeared in it. He had some sort of headphones on that had a single spike sticking out of each one of them.

Mirajane immediately went about explaining the situation.

When she was done, Naruto was shocked to hear what he did.

"How's that my problem?" the man asked with a laugh. "It's not my fault the old man made a mess of things. Why should I have to clean up his mess?"

"Please Laxus, we need help," Mirajane said, trying to sound as though his words had not hurt her. Naruto knew different though. "They're after Lucy, a fellow member of Fairy Tail."

"Oh, you mean the big breasted newbie," Luxus said in a thoughtful tone. "If she'll be my girl, I'd be more than glad to help her out. Tell the old man to step down and name me the Guild Master when he wakes up too."

Naruto could tell that Mirajane was furious, as was he. He could not believe that the man she was talking to was Laxus, the man that many believed to be one of the most powerful mages in Fairy Tail.

Walking over, Naruto turned the lacrima so that the man's image was facing him.

"If you talk that way about Lucy or the Master again, you'll regret it," Naruto said with anger in his eyes.

"Who do you think you're talking to, boy?" Laxus asked with a snort.

"A miserable coward who will never know the true meaning of strength. That's who I'm talking to," Naruto said as he put his hand on the top of the lacrima. "Strength… true strength… only comes when you're protecting something precious to you. You'll never be stronger than Erza, Natsu, or Mira until you see that."

With that, he shattered the lacrima by squeezing his hand.

Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto realized that everyone was looking at him. His words had clearly caught their attention.

Looking at Natsu, he saw that the boy had a smile on his face. The look in his eyes… he knew it was the same look that he had in his eyes when he was acknowledged by Iruka, Kakashi, and Jiraiya for his skills.

"We don't need someone like him to help us," Naruto said as he walked over to a corner of the room and leaned against the wall, sliding to a sitting position.

"Naruto, did you lose a sword?"

Naruto immediately looked up and saw that Loke was standing in front of him with the Five Element Blade in his hands.

"Yeah, I can't believe you found it," Naruto said as he took it. "I looked for it this morning, but I couldn't find it."

"I found it the day that we found the guild attacked," Loke said. "I wasn't sure who it belonged to, so I was going to ask around. Then everything got hectic and I forgot I had it in my apartment. When you put those seals on us yesterday, I realized that the sword had to be yours. You're the only one who uses that type of technique."

"Thanks a ton," Naruto said as he rose to his feet and held it in his hands. "This is what I can do with it."

One by one, the sword was covered by wind, lightning, rock, water, and fire.

"That's a cool sword," Loke said with an impressed look in his eye. "It's a chakra based sword, isn't it?" At the curious look Naruto shot him, he chuckled. "That's what you call the energy you use in addition to magic, right? I couldn't do anything with the sword using my magic, so I figured that's what it was."

"It is," Naruto answered before the sword disappeared. "And now I have five swords in my pocket dimension."

"Why are you still wearing those wristbands then?" Macao asked.

"My shuriken and kunai are in the left one, and I only have paper bombs and smoke bombs in the right one," Naruto answered.

"You really are a ninja, aren't you?" Natsu asked. "I've never heard of anyone using smoke bombs other than ninja."

"Yeah, I had to make them myself," Naruto said with a frown, not actually answering the question. "The ones they sell in stories are for practical jokes."

"Great idea!" Natsu exclaimed.

Everyone face-palmed at the Dragon Slayer's words.

A few moments later, Naruto saw Cana enter the room, and she looked excited.

"Did she do it?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yeah, but she didn't make any on normal paper," Cana said, looking oddly excited. Her next words explained it. "She bought a deck of cards before she was attacked at placed the seal on each one. She also told me that she was done with the book. It was too advanced for her. She only figured out how to create paper bombs and seal tags, whatever that is."

"It's a start at least," Naruto said. "I guess we'll just use the explosive lacrima while you use the explosion cards."

"Naruto, do you want to help me organize my cards for some combos?" Cana asked.

"Sure," Naruto said as he went up to the ground floor with her to help her. He was unsure why she wanted him to help since he was not much of a strategist, but he had no problem helping a friend.

* * *

"Are they dating?" Lucy asked once Naruto and Cana were out of the room.

"No," Macao answered as he shook his head. "They trust each other and are friends, but that's as far as they go. I think he's starting to like Erza though."

The shocked expression on Lucy's face made him laugh.

"But didn't she beat Loke up for asking her out? How would he stand a chance?" Lucy asked, earning a depressed sigh from Loke.

"He's a man," Elfman said with a grin. "Only the manliest man could tame Titania."

Lucy's jaw dropped at the image that his statement brought to mind. It did not matter that he did not mean it in such a way. All that mattered was how she took it.

"But he's only fifteen," Lucy said.

"It's only four years difference," Mirajane said with a smile. "Plus, he is of legal age and has more life experience than you'd think."

"Wasn't there a rumor that you two spent several hours down here before the guild was attacked?" Gray asked, making Lucy's jaw drop once again.

"That's not a rumor," Mirajane said. She was about to say she was only teaching him to use magic when Gray spoke again.

"He certainly gets around. He goes on a date with Cana, he spends hours alone in the basement with Mira, spends the night in Cana's bed, and has spent two nights alone with Erza in her room," Gray said.

The expression on Lucy's face at Gray's words sent Mirajane and several of the others into laughter.

"Why are you guys laughing about that? We only need one Loke around!" Lucy asked, shocked by their reactions.

"They're just messing with you," Macao said with a chuckle. "His date with Cana was just a casual thing. They're just friends, and they didn't do anything. Mira was teaching him to use his magic in the basement. And he's staying with Erza because she's the only one who won't let him sneak off to that crappy apartment that Mira's always ranting about."

Mirajane looked away innocently at that last part.

* * *

Naruto's eyes shifted from Cana's cards as the ground began to rumble.

"It's coming from outside," Cana said with a frown.

"Get your cards together. Put all of your Reverse Tower cards on the top of the desk," Naruto said, growing serious. He was starting to have a bad feeling about everything.

Cana did as he asked with remarkable speed. It was almost as though she could sense her cards and their powers with a sixth sense.

They ran out the back door of the guild as fast as they could and saw something that shocked them.

Phantom Lord was approaching from the body of water behind their guild. What was worse was that the actual guild was approaching, and it was walking on six large legs like it was a castle setting on top of a giant spider.

The entire guild passed through the doors, shock filling each one as they saw what they were up against.

Naruto's eyes widened as he glanced over his shoulder. Erza was standing there, but she was only wearing a towel.

_Damn it! Why did I have to be trained by perverts? I must not think about anything like that. I just can't!_

"What's that?" Natsu asked with a frown as the guild came to a stop and a large cannon began to come out of it, pointed straight at them.

"That's a magical convergent cannon, Jupiter," Erza said with panic clearly written across her face. "Everyone needs to get down and in a hurry. If that hits us, we're done for."

With that, she began to run forward, requipping into an armor that covered her entire body and appeared to be a strong defensive armor. It even had shields attacked to it that looked as though they could be connected.

"Her Adamantine Armor?" Macao asked in surprise. "It's a powerful defensive armor, but she can't take a direct hit, even with it on. It could kill her."

Natsu tried to run forward at that, but Gray stopped him.

"Cana, put a layered reflection circle in front of her," Naruto said with nervousness in his voice.

"Five Layered Circle: Reverse Tower Combination," Cana said immediately as she withdrew five Reverse Tower cards. Immediately, five magic circles formed in front of Erza. Looking to Naruto, she said, "It won't reflect it back at them. It'll shatter all five of the circles."

"And reduce the blast's power by fifty percent," Mirajane said with a sigh of relief. "That was good thinking Naruto."

"I won't let my comrades die," Naruto vowed.

In all honesty, Naruto wanted to get between Erza and the Jupiter Cannon, but he knew better. He would have to enter his four-tailed form to not be severely injured by it, and he might end up going berserk if he did that. He just hoped that his idea worked.

Erza brought the shields together, creating a large magic circle right in front of her.

Fear filled everyone as the Jupiter fired a magic blast. It moved so fast that they would not have been able to dodge it if they had reacted the instant it fired. When it hit the first of Cana's magic circles, it shattered it without slowing it down much. It looked as though the circles were not going to be of any use until it reached the third one. It actually stalled the blast for a few seconds. When it broke that circle, the blast lost about a quarter of its size. The same thing happened with the two circles after that.

At a quarter of its original strength, the blast was still strong enough to kill the average mage if they were hit directly. Erza's magic shield stopped it without the magic shield or her shields getting damaged at all.

As she took the shields apart, the large magic shield faded away. She requipped into her normal armor before looking at Naruto with a grateful smile.

"You may have stopped the Jupiter's blast, but you still don't stand a chance," Jose announced through the speaker system of his mobile guild. "Hand over Lucy Heartfillia."

"You're out of your mind!" Alzack yelled.

"Where in the world would you find a guild willing to hand over a comrade to the enemy?" Bisca yelled.

"We'd rather die than half over a comrade!" Erza declared.

"Our answer won't change no matter what! We'll kick your ass!" Natsu yelled.

At that moment, all Naruto could feel was pride. He was truly proud to be a Fairy Tail mage.

"Only true scum would abandon a comrade," Naruto said, looking at Lucy. "We all feel this way, so don't feel bad."

Lucy looked surprised that he had spoken directly to her. Her hands touched the tears that were falling and nodded.

"I see," Jose said over the speaker system again. "In that case, we'll fire an even bigger and stronger blast from the Jupiter. Shiver in fear for the next fifteen minutes as we prepare it."

Naruto looked dumbstruck at that.

"What kind of dumbass says that? We can just destroy the cannon's power source before it's ready," Naruto muttered under his breath.

"That was pretty dumb," Erza agreed.

"Epic fail, man. Epic fail," Elfman said as he nodded in agreement.

"What's that?" Natsu asked as he pointed to the cloaked figures flying out of the guild.

"Feel the pain, Fairy Tail," Jose declared. "You have two choices. Get killed by my soldiers or die by Jupiter."

"He wouldn't really kill his own men with the Jupiter, would he?" one of the mages present asked. "Surely he's just making a hollow threat."

"Yeah, he'll fire it if he has the chance," Cana said with a frown. "That's his magic. Those aren't humans. They're shades, soldiers created out of magic. They aren't even really alive."

"Natsu, go deal with the Jupiter," Erza said before she looked back. "Gray, Elfman, follow after him just in case. He'll beat you there thanks to Happy, but he might need help." Before she even addressed the other two mages, Natsu was flying there with Happy's help.

"Where are Lucy and Mira?" Naruto asked as he looked around. The two girls were nowhere to be seen.

"Knowing Mira, she's taking Lucy somewhere safe," Erza said as she glanced back at him. "Reedus is gone too, so that would make sense."

A few moments later, Naruto saw Lucy return to the back of the crowd, but she was wearing Mirajane's clothes. It was obvious that it was not really Lucy.

_I'll just pretend that she's Lucy, I guess._

"Guns Magic: Sunlight Shot," Alzack said as he fired a bullet towards the approaching shades. The bullet exploded into a burst of light, eradicating the shades. Unfortunately, the shades came right back within a few moments.

"They are just the form that Jose's Darkness Magic takes," Erza said with a sigh. "Killing them is nearly impossible."

"Nearly isn't impossible," Naruto pointed out.

"Light Magic will destroy them for good, so he'd have to make new ones," Erza said with a nod. "The only one who can even use it in the guild is the Master though. If I had Light Empress Armor, I'd just use the sword that comes with it. Like all Empress Armor, it comes with a weapon for its respective element. However, most people don't need to defend against Light Magic, making it the rarest type of Empress Armor out there."

"If they aren't real, my Dynamite Slinger won't work against them either," Naruto said with a sigh as the Fire Slinger appeared in his hand. "I wish I had known that I couldn't beat them with this before I started pulling it out. Oh well, I guess I'll buy us some time."

With that, fire surrounded his blade and he swung it at the mass of approaching shades.

In that single swing, he released one hundred percent of the sword's stored magic. It literally sent a large wall of flames at the shades, temporarily destroying all of them in a single attack.

Once that was done, he tossed the sword to the side, no longer interested in it. It was useless at that point.

"I wonder," he muttered as a thought occurred to him. Approximately forty-five seconds later, the Enemy Slayer appeared in his hand. As it did so, a shade was getting close to him.

Bringing the sword in a swift arc, he sliced the shade in half. As he sliced it in half, it faded away. It did not return.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" Erza asked in shock.

"I can destroy these things with this sword," Naruto said with a grin. "This is awesome."

He would regret those words after he got to spend around twenty minutes destroying shades.

* * *

Naruto sighed as he thought of everything that had just happened.

Right at the fifteen minute mark that would have allowed the Jupiter to fire again, Natsu had managed to destroy the lacrima that powered the cannon. At that point, the guild had transformed into some kind of lacrima-powered robot, which they tried to use to cast Abyss Break, a spell that could destroy all of Magnolia.

Upon seeing that, Erza had requipped her Black Wing Armor and flown to stop it herself, but she ordered Naruto to stay behind for some reason.

As if that was not enough, Mirajane had tried to buy them some time by trying to give herself up under the guise of Lucy. As he had expected, they saw through her transformation. They unexpectedly captured her and tried to crush her in response though. Thankfully, Elfman had saved her in the end.

One good bit of news eventually did come up though. Loke had given him a reason to leave the battle with the shades. It was tiring taking them out one by one. They were apparently rather easy to create. Jose always made more when he destroyed some.

Still, he could not help but worry as he ran alongside Loke. His older comrade had come to suspect that Lucy was in danger, so they were headed to check on her.

They had only stopped once during their run, and that was when Loke had looked back to the fight. He had said that they stopped Abyss Break, but he offered no explanations of how it happened.

In all honesty, Naruto did not care how it happened.

"Shit," Loke said as he came to a stop.

Naruto groaned as he saw what Loke was looking at. Gajeel had just jumped through a roof with Lucy in hand.

"I'll kick his ass," Naruto said. "Take Lucy back to the guild."

He jumped and landed directly in front of Gajeel a second later.

"I thought I smelled you, jackass," Gajeel said as he suddenly threw Lucy at Naruto. His hand immediately turned into iron, prepared to use his Iron Dragon's Club on Naruto.

Naruto caught Lucy with ease and tossed her over his head before he moved toward Gajeel with a chakra enhanced dash.

Loke caught Lucy with ease and took off running towards the guild with her.

Gajeel tried to go after her, but the knee that slammed into his stomach stopped him.

"This fight is between us," Naruto said coldly. "I won't forgive you for hurting my comrades. I might not know Levy, Droy, and Jet too well, but Lucy is a friend. I will destroy you for laying a hand on her. And this time, I won't even use my full power."

With that, Naruto grabbed him and threw him through the roof of the warehouse that he had come from.

When he followed Gajeel into it, he saw that there were two other Phantom Lord mages there. One of them tried to use some form of Sound Magic on him immediately, but Naruto used the Substitution Jutsu and switched with Gajeel.

Horror was clear on the sound user's face as his ally was hit. It only lasted a second though. He, along with the female Phantom Lord mage, was knocked unconscious immediately. They had never fought someone who could sneak behind them like Naruto could.

"You're not like any mage I've ever seen," Gajeel said as he stood up and had metal scales start to cover his body completely. "You don't use magic very often, do you?"

"I was trained to do one thing since I was six years old," Naruto said as he summoned a handful of shuriken from his wristband. "Unlike most people, I'm a trained killer." With that, he threw the shuriken at Gajeel. The instant that they hit him, Gajeel was brought to his knees in pain. He had not noticed the electricity covering the shuriken until they hit him. The electricity had a painful reaction to the metal scales.

"Every technique has a weakness," Naruto said as blue chakra covered his right foot. He delivered a sharp kick to Gajeel's torso, sending him flying through the doors of the warehouse. Naruto spared a glance at Reedus, who was lying unconscious against the wall next to the door.

"Iron Dragon's Club," Gajeel said as his right arm extended into a slender club aimed for Naruto's chest. It was too fast to dodge, so it made contact.

However, Naruto burst into smoke upon being hit.

Gajeel rose to his feet in confusion. "Where'd he go?" He began to turn around. As he did, he grunted in pain.

Naruto slammed a Rasengan into Gajeel's stomach, but he did not press down hard enough to kill the man. He sent him flying back completely through the warehouse with it. When he landed, his dragon scales began to fall off of him. The attack had sent spider web-like cracks all throughout it.

Shaking his head, Naruto walked over to Reedus and picked the man up. It was only slightly difficult because of his large size. However, Naruto was a ninja. It would be a sad sight when a Leaf ninja could not lift a comrade and carry them to safety.

Naruto began to run towards the guild at that moment, a bright light shining throughout the sky that gave him hope that everything would be okay.

* * *

When Naruto reached the guild, he saw that it had been destroyed, but there was good news. No one was badly injured, Makarov had showed up and defeated Jose, and Phantom Lord had been defeated.

"You fought Gajeel?" Erza asked immediately.

"Yeah, I won," Naruto said as he set Reedus down.

"The victory today does not go to me," Makarov stated, catching their attention. "It goes to all of you. Without your hard work, we would not have come this far. Know that I am proud of you for standing up for your comrades and fighting for what you believe in. We have a long journey ahead of us as we deal with the Council and rebuild our guild, but together, we can accomplish anything because we are Fairy Tail!"

His speech ended with thunderous applause from everyone.

It seemed that the destruction of one guild only served to fortify the bonds that held another together.

Makarov was definitely right about one thing. There was a long journey ahead of Fairy Tail.

* * *

Author's Note: That's the chapter.

Now, I'm sure someone is curious as to what exactly happened outside of Naruto's part in the battle. Essentially, it was the same as in canon. Natsu fought Totomaru until Elfman showed up and punched him into the sky, Elfman fought Sol and used his Full Body Take Over to win and save Mirajane, Gray fought Juvia, and Natsu fought Aria until Erza showed up and defeated him. The fight with Jose went a little differently since Erza was there in full health and Natsu was there. They were able to last long enough without getting killed (or trying to commit suicide in Erza's case) for Makarov to show up and save the day.

I'm sure not everyone is pleased that Naruto was took Natsu's place and fought Gajeel. However, I felt that this was best, however. Natsu and Gajeel had no stakes in a fight outside of them both being Dragon Slayers. Naruto lost to Gajeel once, and they tied in their second fight, really, though Naruto did embarass him too. I felt that a third battle between them was necessary, and Naruto would have been too weakened to fight him if he fought any of the Element Four.

I do want to say that the Element Four are not done in this story. In fact, Jose is most likely not done yet either. They have the potential to be used for interesting things. Naturally, I don't speak of Juvia when I mention the Element Four. Her role is the same as in canon.

Now, this was the last chapter of the Phantom Lord Arc. I will have an original arc after this, and the Tower of Heaven Arc will come after that.

The original arc will basically run from right after the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord war right up to the end of the Loke Arc.

Finally, I have another Q & A segment for you.

Q: Why did you give Cana the Explosion Cards when she didn't even use them?

A: Her gaining them was the end of a sub-plot. She'll use them, but I hope for everyone to forget all about them by the time she uses them for the first time. It's fun to surprise the readers.

Q: What side pairings are decided for certain?

A: Natsu/Lisanna, Gray/Juvia, Alzach/Bisca, Happy/Charle and two more that are secret. You won't figure out them if you guess, unless you're the only person I've shared them with. Gajeel/Levy is a possibility, but I'm not saying yay or nay on it for now.

Q: Will you give Naruto (insert sword from random anime/manga/mythology)?

A: I highly doubt it. For now, I have at least 15 swords planned for him. Only two of those are not of my own creation, and that's because they are actually swords that exist within the Fairy Tail world. Unless I change my mind, it's highly likely that he will get a Musica Sword. That's the sword that everyone's favorite Exceed (here's a hint: he has round ears and can grow in size) stole from an enemy in the S-class Trial Arc. I get the feeling it's not a one of a kind sword.

Q: Don't you think the battle between Naruto and Gajeel was a bit too one-sided?

A: Naruto has fought Gajeel twice before this last time. He's familiar with his techniques, and he's thought about ways he could win. He knows that he can't overpower Gajeel without using his two-tailed form, so he exploited Gajeel's weakness. Gajeel was hit by a sound based attack that was enough to disable Loke for a while, and then Naruto electrocuted him with four shuriken when he was covered in metal. He was weakened tremendously by that. Naruto's skillset is so diverse that Gajeel was unprepared for the fight. Because of it, he lost. To be honest, Naruto's only techniques that would do a thing to Gajeel are his lightning seals and his Rasengan variations. Neither one of his magic swords would do anything against him when he uses his dragon scales, his oil wouldn't be useful (even if he could set it on fire), he doesn't have any other seals that would work against him, and Gajeel can deal with shadow clones. His chakra hammer is effective against the dragon scales, but it simply negates the scales in a way, making his hits as strong as they would be if he was not using the Chakra Hammer and Gajeel wasn't using his scales.

I honestly think it was a good portrayal of them fighting.

Q: How would you rate the mages of Fairy Tail in strength?

A: I won't list all of them, but here are the top ten: Makarov, Gildarts, Laxus, Mystogan, Erza, Mirajane, Naruto, Natsu, Freed, and Gray.

I'm sure someone is wondering why I have Naruto below Mirajane. It should be noted that I am not including the Nine-Tails in the assessment. I feel that if Mirajane used Satan Soul, Naruto could only win (at the present) if he at least used his one-tailed form. She's pretty badass, as seen when she fought Freed.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing. This is officially my longest work of fanfiction on the site, by the way.


	21. A New Team?

Author's Note: This is a bit of an unusual chapter for me. It's really four different scenes that take place on different days. It should still be fairly good though.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

* * *

**The Swordsman Arc**

**21. A New Team?**

Naruto was quite glad to finally reach his apartment after a few days of staying elsewhere. Even if it was a shoddy apartment, it was his own, and that was important.

The instant that he shut the door, he found that he was in for a surprise though.

Someone appeared out of thin air in front of his coffee table. The person before him had bandages around his legs and arms. Black pants with white stripes and cut off legs right below the knees, a ragged black cloak held on by a chain, and a green cloth covering the lower half of his face made the man look very distinctive. The bandana that the figure wore with an unmarked forehead protector was a nice touch in Naruto's opinion. His eyes widened when he saw the five staves that the man had on his back.

"Hello Naruto Uzumaki," the man said in a muffled voice. "I have waited to meet you for a while now. I believe that it's time now though."

"Who are you?" Naruto asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice. The man had appeared out of the middle of nowhere without a sign, so he could not help but be nervous because of the man.

"I am called Mystogan," the man said, shocking Naruto. "I would have spoken with you sooner, but I was busy dealing with Phantom Lord's sub-divisions. I am here now though."

Naruto could not hide his surprise. The man before him was Mystogan, one of the strongest mages in Fairy Tail. It was said that his power exceeded that of Erza.

"Why do you want to speak with me?" Naruto asked, growing serious. "There's nothing special about me."

"We both know that's a lie," Mystogan said. "You and I… we both have something in common. Neither one of us are from this world."

Naturally, Naruto was dumbstruck by those words.

His eyes further served to widen when Mystogan removed the mask around the lower half of his face and pulled off the bandana. He looked just like Siegrain.

"I trust you won't speak of what you see before you to any others. For now, only you can know the truth," Mystogan said. "I am not the one known as Siegrain, and I am not the one known as Jellal either, though I doubt you've even heard of him yet. I am from a world called Edolas. It is a parallel world to this one. In that world, there are versions of everyone in this world. Though I never met them, I'm sure that there is a Laxus and Erza there."

"How can you be so casual about this?" Naruto asked with a frown. "Being from another world… it's a serious thing."

"It is," Mystogan agreed. "We are both from other worlds though. I have yet to meet someone that I can relate to as much as you. I have to confess that I'm confused and intrigued by you as well. I know for a fact that you did not possess magic when you joined Fairy Tail. How is it that you do now?"

"I used a technique from my world to absorb the energy from five lacrima that were filled with Master and Mira's magical power," Naruto answered. He was not exactly hiding how he gained his magic as it was.

"Perhaps I'll one day ask you to do the same for me," Mystogan said thoughtfully. "In my world, magic does not exist within people. The mages of Edolas use magic through applying lacrima to weapons and tools, much like the sword I left for you in here when you were meditating."

Naruto's eyes widened at the realization that the man before him was the one that left the Fire Slinger in his apartment. Naturally, he started to feel bad. He had given Natsu the sword a few hours later after Phantom Lord was defeated.

"The sword was of little consequence. Now that you possess magic, I'm sure you can use magic swords that are powered by your magical power easily enough," Mystogan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "In my travels, I did obtain a magical sword that I've been trying to keep out of the wrong hands. Perhaps you would like it."

Suddenly, Mystogan disappeared into thin air, only to reappear in a minute with a unique sword in his hands. It had the pommel and hilt of a long sword, and the guard on it was rounded at ends. The truly unique part about it was the blade though. It resembled the hand of an antique clock, or perhaps the needle of an antique compass.

"This sword is the Compass Tyr, also called the Fatal Compass. It has no combat abilities whatsoever. Instead, it will allow you to find any object in the world with its magic. It will only show you the location to that which you desire most at that moment though, so a conflicted heart will lessen its strength," Mystogan said as he handed the sword to Naruto.

Taking it, Naruto saw that the pommel was actually designed with the face of a compass on each side. The needle of the compass bore the same shape as the sword's blade. Looking the sword over, it took note that it was even lighter in weight than the Dynamite Slinger, and its hilt was only long enough to hold in one hand.

"Isn't it a bit too convenient that you keep giving me swords?" he asked with a frown. "And how did you even know that I used magic swords or had magic in the first place?"

"I see the potential for greatness in you. Even so, I won't deny that I am helping myself by giving that sword to you. The mage who initially had it was using it to find artifacts of dark magic. Giving it to you keeps it out of the hands of dark mages, especially if you can requip," Mystogan answered. "As for how I knew you gained magic and use magic swords… the Phantom Lord mages spoke of you. They said you used a sword that exploded upon contact."

"You have another reason for doing this, don't you?" Naruto asked.

"Perhaps," Mystogan said with a smile as he put his mask and bandana back in place. "You'll understand everything in time. I do ask that you keep my face and my origins secret. You might be willing to let some others know the truth about you, but I am not in this world by accident. I have a purpose that must be served, and having Master Makarov or any of the others find out would cause problems."

"I understand," Naruto said as Mystogan disappeared within thin air. Shaking he head, he said, "For a guy with no magic of his own, he sure has some kick ass abilities."

* * *

The next day, Naruto and Erza were on the beach near Fairy Hills. It was a strange sight, as neither one of them were wearing shoes and Erza did not even have her armor on. Oh, and they were fighting.

Half of the girls that lived at Fairy Hills were seated in the shade as the pair fought using hand-to-hand combat exclusively. Their speed and strength appeared to be equal, neither one actually landing a hit on the other. Naruto had been dominating the fight initially, but that had changed when Erza came to the conclusion that her armor had been slowing her down.

After several minutes of fighting, Erza had dropped to the ground and kicked his feet out from under him. Surprised by the tactic, he had fallen to the sand.

"You're probably the third best in the guild at hand-to-hand combat," Erza said with a smile as she offered him a hand. "Laxus and Mystogan don't really use hand-to-hand combat from what I've heard, so the only one that I know is better at it than I am is Gildarts."

Naruto took her hand and stood up. "It's nice getting to fight someone who is almost as good as my teacher," he said with a grin. "It's a shame I can't introduce you to Lee. You'd see what a master of hand-to-hand combat is really like."

The girls that had been watching them paled at his words.

"Was he really that good?" Erza asked curiously.

"When I first fought him, he took me out with a single kick," Naruto said with a nod. "He wore weights that left craters in the ground when he dropped them. You _might_ be almost as fast as him in your Flight Suit as he is when he doesn't wear them. Almost."

"He sounds interesting," Erza said.

"Do you want to see him?" Naruto asked with the grin of a prankster.

"Sure," Erza said, oblivious to what was so funny about it. "You're going to transform into him, I take it?"

With a nod, Naruto used his Transformation Magic to turn into Rock Lee as he was when Naruto last saw him.

"Yosh Erza! Show me your Flames of Youth and meet me in a battle of fists beneath the youthful sun!" Naruto exclaimed in Lee's voice. "If I cannot beat you, I will run around Magnolia a thousand times on my hands. And if I cannot do that, I will strap a boulder to my back and run to Clover and back. My Flames of Youth burn with the intensity of a thousand suns. Yosh!"

At hearing his words, Erza just fell down, as did all of the other girls present.

"Yoshi, I win!" Naruto exclaimed before he transformed back into himself. As expected, even the mighty Titania was not strong enough to withstand an impersonation of Rock Lee, let alone the real thing. "Well, I'm going to go to the guild. He might need help, and I'm a one man construction crew."

With that, he left, still chuckling about their reactions. It was just too hilarious.

* * *

As it turned out, he did not get to do any work that day. Upon arriving at the guild, he noticed that the Rune Knights, the Magic Council's military force, was present. They took every member of Fairy Tail, including the girls back at the beach, into custody and escorted them to their camp outside of town. There, they were questioned and interrogated for a full week before they were allowed to return. Fortunately, the Rune Knights had determined that the attack was Phantom Lord's responsibility, not Fairy Tail's. The punishment that Fairy Tail received in return for their part in the guild war was to be determined at a later date.

In all honesty, Naruto had to say that the worst part of the entire ordeal was that the Rune Knights had forbid him from using magic as long as he was in custody. They let Erza requip into new clothes, but they had been against him requipping the instant they learned he could only requip swords.

He just wanted to practice. It was not like he was going to pull out a sword and rebel against them or anything. Not that that crossed his mind. He would never consider doing something like that. He certainly would never think about all the ways he could kill them just using the environment around him. He just was not that type of person… or that was what he tried to make everyone think, at least.

After seven days in their camp, Naruto and the others had been released. At that time, they began construction on the new guild, which Makarov said he wanted to build differently.

Naruto was not actually involved in the construction at all. However, he had created twenty-five shadow clones to help out. They had initially refused since he was just going to watch, but Naruto reminded them that he would get all of their memories of the construction once they dispelled, which was far worse than having to actually do the work. For every day they worked, he would get the memory of working of twenty-five days.

Just the prospect made Naruto shiver in horror. Sometimes, he wished he could just shut off the memory transfer aspect of the jutsu. Unfortunately, he could not.

"Where's Erza?" Mirajane asked as she walked up to him.

"She said she wanted to check on Lucy. Natsu and Gray were worried about her. I'm not sure why she went to check herself though."

"Ah," Mirajane said with an understanding nod. "Well, Master said he wants to talk to you both. I'll tell him she's checking on Lucy, so I guess he'll just talk to you two tomorrow."

"Okay," Naruto said with a hint of confusion. He was not sure why he would want to talk to both of them together.

"We'll be putting a request board out front so everyone can start accepting jobs," Mirajane said as she started to walk over to the titan-sized Makarov. "We can't just put the jobs on hold while we rebuild, after all."

"Right," Naruto said with a nod. It was at that moment that Naruto realized that he had never done a job on his own. Since Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Gray, and Erza all seemed to be a team, he did not really have a team to work with. "I wish I had a team."

He had no idea what awaited him the next day.

* * *

"You wanted to speak to us?" Erza asked the next day as she approached Naruto and Makarov, who had been discussing the event that had happened the day before, Lucy's temporary return home to confront her father.

"It's good to see you," Makarov said as he shrunk down to his normal size. "I have news for both of you. To start off with, I've decided to officially recognize Team Natsu as a team."

"That's great news," Erza said with a smile.

"Yes, Natsu, Happy, Gray, and Lucy are officially a team," Makarov said as he looked her in the eyes.

"Oh," Erza said, clearly caught off guard by the lack of her name among the members.

"Natsu and Gray… they have the potential to become S-class mages soon," Makarov said seriously. "Lucy seems to be able to control them somewhat too."

"There's a_ but_ coming up," Naruto noted, receiving a nod from Makarov.

"Erza, putting you with those two is overkill in the simplest definition of the word. I have my hearing with the Council this afternoon, and the last thing we need in the near future is the level of destruction that you three are capable of when together," Makarov said, sighing at the look on Erza's face. "As such, I've decided to offer you a different team, Team Erza."

"Team Erza?" Erza asked a bit confused.

"I want you and Naruto to become a team. You are both users of Requip Magic, and Naruto told me his plans for his skill set. If he becomes an offense type Requip Mage and you are a defense type Requip Mage, your abilities will complement each other," Makarov explained.

"I'm in, if you'll have me," Naruto said as he looked at the redhead.

"I can think of far worse partners," Erza said with a smile. "I can definitely trust you to handle yourself on S-class jobs."

"S-class jobs?" Naruto asked.

"She's an S-class mage, so she can take anyone she wants on an S-class job," Makarov explained as he grinned. "Congratulations. I now pronounce you Team Erza."

The wording choice earned a raised eyebrow from Erza, but she did not say anything.

"So what's our first job?" Naruto asked.

"I actually chose a job for you two," Makarov said as he handed a piece of paper to Erza.

"This is a bit overkill," Erza commented.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"He wants us to go and stop a slavery operation that is being run by a mage named Bora. He was banished from his guild, the Titan Nose Guild, for committing crimes with his magic a few years ago," Erza explained. "It's overkill because Natsu alone defeated him after he met Lucy. Lucy told me that Bora tried to capture her as a slave, but Natsu saved her."

"Oh," Naruto said in surprise.

"I wouldn't send an S-class mage to handle this normally, but I wanted to give you two an easy job so you can see how well you two work together when it's just you. I'd also appreciate it if you didn't kill anyone, Naruto," Makarov said, his tone growing stern at the last part.

Erza looked at Naruto in confusion at that.

"Erigor," Naruto muttered, making Erza's eyes widen. He had not shared that part of his most recent job with her. He had actually learned from studying the knowledge his father left behind that anything that was sealed inside a destroyed storage scroll was destroyed along with it, so he had indeed killed Erigor. He did not feel too conflicted about it. The man deserved nothing less in his mind.

"I'll make sure he behaves," Erza said as she turned away from Makarov. "Come on Naruto, we have a job to do."

"Right," Naruto said.

With that, they left.

With the formation of Team Natsu and Team Erza as different teams, much had changed. Whether it was for better or worse had yet to be seen though.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, reviewing, and voting. I look forward to my upcoming work in addition to continuing this.


	22. Short Lived Team

Author's Note: I expect that this chapter will be a bit of a disappointment to some people because I'm not showing Naruto and Erza's job that was mentioned last chapter at all. If I had done so, it would have been at least a week before I updated. I was having a lot of trouble writing it.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail

* * *

**The Swordsman Arc**

**22. A Short Lived Team**

The job to end the slavery operation that was run by Bora of Prominence was not a difficult task, especially when Titania and Kitsune of Fairy Tail were involved.

In the end, the only mages that were involved were Bora and two former members of Eisenwald, Byard and Rayule. Dealing with a weak Fire Mage, a decent Light Mage, and decent mage that used some kind of flat, black cables was not very difficult, even with the hundred or so thugs they had hired.

Had it not been for Naruto's Compass Tyr, they would have had difficulty finding the base of operations in the beginning, but Mystogan's gift had come right in the nick of time, it seemed. Still, he had not liked telling Erza who gave it to him. Apparently, Mystogan was a loner, so the fact that he came to speak with Naruto in person confused her greatly.

He shook his head at such thoughts as they entered Magnolia.

Naruto found his eyes on Erza as she walked with a firm gaze on the street before her. She was without a doubt the strongest girl that he knew. She was strong, independent, and beautiful.

"Erza," Naruto said as he stopped.

The redhead stopped and turned to look at him. "Yes?"

"I was wondering," he said a little nervously, making her raise an eyebrow. "Would you like to go out sometime?"

She looked him in the eyes for a few moments before a frown came to her face. "I'm sorry, but I'm not the dating type."

"Oh," Naruto said as he started to walk again, growing quiet.

Erza immediately called out to him and chased after him, but he disappeared in a swirl of leaves before she could reach him.

Sighing, she continued walking towards the guild to inform Makarov that they had completed the job.

She never realized that Naruto was standing on the roof of one of the buildings that they had passed moments earlier.

* * *

Naruto watched her walk away with a frown. He had taken a risk by asking her out, and it had blown up in his face. He truly liked her, even if he was unsure of how much. He had thought that she liked him too, but then she had rejected him.

It hurt to hear those words from her.

Sakura had turned him down hundreds of times over the years, but he was pretty sure that the one rejection from Erza hurt more than every rejection put together from Sakura.

He wanted to hit himself hard for asking her without considering the possibility that she would say no, but he knew that there was nothing he could do.

As he sat down on the roof, he tried to figure out what he was going to do. He was supposed to be on Erza's team, but he could not see how well that would work out after he asked her out and she rejected him.

"At least she didn't beat you up."

Naruto's gaze shot up as he saw Loke standing on the other side of the roof.

"I saw what happened," Loke said as he walked up to him. "It's always hard when the girl that turns you down is the one you really like, isn't it?"

"And what would you know about being rejected?" Naruto asked with a weak grin.

"Fair enough," Loke said with a chuckle. "The only girls that have actually turned me down were Erza and Lucy, and I ended up avoiding the latter after I found out she was a Celestial Spirit Mage."

"I always wondered why you don't like Celestial Spirit Mages," Naruto said as he looked at Loke curiously.

"It's nothing important," Loke said dismissively. "I just had some problems with one in the past."

"That's pretty stupid," Naruto said, earning a surprised look from Loke. "Lucy had some problems with this Fire Mage. He tried to sell her into slavery. She definitely doesn't have a problem with Natsu though."

Loke chuckled at that. "You're pretty good at simplifying things, but it's not that simple."

"Whatever you say," Naruto said with a sigh. "I think I'm going to go practice a little though. I picked up a new sword from one of the thugs we beat on the job."

"She'll come looking for you. Don't practice where she'll find you too easy. I doubt you want to talk to her right now," Loke said before he walked off.

"East Forest it is then," Naruto muttered as he began to jump from rooftop to rooftop.

* * *

"We completed the job, Master," Erza said with an inclination of her head as she stood in front of the giant-sized Makarov, who was working on the reconstruction.

"Where's Naruto?" he asked as he looked around. "I don't see him."

"There were some complications when we got back to town," Erza said with a frown.

"In other words, he asked you out and you said no," Mirajane said from behind her.

"That's about it," Erza said with a sigh. "I just couldn't say yes. I wanted to, but I just couldn't."

"Did Erza just admit that she likes Naruto?" Mirajane asked with a smile, causing Makarov to laugh and the redhead to blush slightly at the realization that she had admitted it. "So why didn't you say yes?"

"I haven't gotten over my past, even if he has," Erza said as she looked down. "I know all about his, but he still doesn't know anything about mine."

"Ah," Makarov said thoughtfully. "I hope he handles this incident well."

"What do you mean?" Erza asked as she looked at him in confusion.

"Think about the type of life he has lived," Makarov said seriously. "It has to hurt more than normal for him to be rejected by someone he cares about deeply. That's why I'm going to send Cana out to talk to him."

"She already left," Loke said as he approached them with his hands in his pockets. "They're good friends, so I figured she'd want to be there."

"I have to apologize," Erza said as she started to turn away.

Much to everyone's surprise, Loke stepped in front of her. "I'm the only one who heard him say where he went to, and I'm not going to tell you."

"Why not?" Erza demanded.

"You want to apologize because you hurt him," Loke said as he adjusted his sunglasses. "That's not going to help him. If you wanted to apologize for not realizing your feelings when he asked and only later coming to the conclusion that you want to go out with him, I'd probably tell you. That's not what you want to do though."

"You're getting pretty brave," Mirajane said with a smile.

"Naruto's a good guy. I can't help but respect and admire him. Because of that, I'll do whatever it takes to help him out," Loke said without looking away from Erza.

"If that's what you want, then fine," Erza said as she walked around him and left.

* * *

When Cana found Naruto thanks to a special tracking card that she had created for that exact purpose, she came upon an interesting sight.

Naruto was fighting a hundred clones at one time. They were all armed with kunai while he had a sword that had the hilt of a great sword but a blade that was only six inches long. When he swung the sword, the blade suddenly became as long as he was tall and as wide as the guard of the hilt was.

The way it changed to the stubby version of the sword when he started to swing it and the way it changed to a massive sword when it neared his opponents had Cana mesmerized.

That particular kind of sword was a Musica Sword. Since it only needed magic to change forms, even people with only the slightest amount of skill with magic could wield it, though they definitely could not use it like Naruto was.

Cana waited until all of the clones were destroyed before she spoke. "Naruto, are you okay?"

He looked to her before he put the sword up using his Requip Magic.

"I'm just venting," Naruto said as he slumped against a tree.

"I know," Cana said as she walked up to him. "Loke told me what happened and how I could find you."

"That figures," Naruto said with a small smile. "I'm glad you're here though. I owe you."

That seemed to confuse her to no end. "What are you talking about?"

"I never told you about my past," Naruto said, reminding her of what he had said during the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord War.

"I'd love to hear it now," Cana said as she sat down on the ground. He quickly followed her example.

"Here it goes," he said as he began to tell her his full story.

By the end of it, Cana summed it up with one word. "Wow."

"It's not the type of thing you hear every day, is it?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Definitely not," she agreed with a smile. As expected, she had taken it extremely well. It seemed that most of the mages of Fairy Tail were very easy going. "If you're going to tell me your past, I guess I should tell you mine though."

"I'm listening," Naruto said, definitely intrigued.

"When I was six years old, my mother died. She left custody of me to my father, so I journeyed here to meet him," Cana said, growing quietly. Every now and then, she looked around, almost as if she expected someone to spy on the conversation. "He was a mage of Fairy Tail, but he didn't know that he had a daughter."

"You told him, right?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I was at the girl every day and every night for a couple months before I finally met him. I tried to tell him then, but I couldn't when I found out how amazing of a mage he was. I thought I could eventually work up the nerve to tell him over time, but I just couldn't. Eventually, I decided that I'd tell him after I became an S-class mage so he'd be proud of me. I've failed the S-class Promotion Exams several times now though."

"Dads aren't like that," Naruto said as he shook his head. "My father… he was proud of me even though I'm nothing compared to him. My sensei used to tell me that he had more talent in his pinky than I did in my entire body." He chuckled at that. "My father was an amazing shinobi, so I'd have to agree with my sensei there."

"It's not that simple," Cana said with a frown. "How do you tell the strongest mage in Fairy Tail that he's your father and that he hasn't been there for you the last twelve years because he didn't know?"

"The past is the past. You can't change it," Naruto said with a smile. "It'll kill you if you keep hiding it from him." A frown soon came to his face. "But who is the strongest mage in the guild? I'm pretty sure you're not the Old Man's daughter."

The thought of Makarov being her father made her shiver. "My father is Gildarts Clive, the Ace of Fairy Tail."

"I've heard that name before," Naruto said thoughtfully.

* * *

From where he was standing, Makarov had to use all of his control not pass out from that revelation.

He had intended on checking up on Naruto. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to find out that Gildarts was Cana's father. He had to admit that there was a little resemblance between the two. Still, it shocked him that Gildarts actually had a daughter.

The temptation to track down Gildarts and recall him back to the guild began to grow, but he was not sure that it would be a good idea. Gildarts was on a hundred years' job at that moment. If he abandoned the job, it would look bad for Fairy Tail and Gildarts, and he did not want to cause any more trouble than necessary for Gildarts. If he knew the Ace of Fairy Tail as well as he thought he did, then he would not take the news that his daughter had been under his nose the entire time too well. The knowledge that he had not been doing his job as a father would be hard for any man to bear, even the strongest mage in Fairy Tail.

As quietly as he could manage, Makarov left the forest and headed back to the guild. He had much to think about, and spending some time on reconstruction would help him think.

* * *

**Weapons Corner**

Compass Tyr  
Compass Tyr is a long sword with a unique blade. Its blade is shaped like the needle of an antique compass. It has no offensive or defensive capabilities at all. It can show the wielder visions of that which they desire most, along with how to get there. It cannot be used effectively by anyone who has a conflicted heart.

Musica Sword  
The Musica Sword is definitely not a one of a kind sword. It is usually an expensive sword with an ornate hilt, but Naruto's version came from one of Bora's men. It has the pommel, hilt, and guard of a claymore or great sword. The blade has transformation magic and is capable of taking different shapes and sizes at the wielder's will. When Naruto summons it, it has a wide blade that is only as long as the hilt. This lets him swing it fast. If he transforms it into a larger form mid-swing, it will keep its momentum, allowing him to put more force behind a swing with a heavier sword than he can usually wield.

* * *

Author's Note: Despite what you might think, I'm not going to show Naruto's job with Mystogan. The guilds they take out are about as strong as Eisenwald was without Erigor, and the job does not in any way add to the plot. My reason for having him do this job at all is tied to the next paragraph.

After much deliberation, I have decided that Naruto will not take part in the Tower of Heaven Arc or the Oracion Seis Arc. The reason behind this is because I don't want Naruto to steal the spotlight, and him having a role in those arcs would definitely cause problems. To do so would just be me keeping Naruto as the main character in every conflict, which would make Natsu a weaker character as an end result.

This decision has absolutely nothing to do with Fairy's Light or the other project that I'll be working on shortly.

That's not to say that those two projects don't affect this though. I will be focusing on one story at a time, so I won't stop writing one story until I finish the current arc. This chapter was the last chapter of this arc because of my inability to write the job that Naruto and Erza did.

At that time, I'll move on to the new story.

I'm doing a third story no matter what. I have the inspiration for it, and the more quality stories in this section, the better.

Here's the premise:

The Cult of Zeref performed a powerful ritual intend on bringing forth a human from another world with the power to work as a suitable sacrifice so they can resurrect Zeref. What they get in return is a ten year old Naruto. When his magic is finally activated, he brings about their ruin. With nowhere left to go, Naruto finds himself walking down a dark path.

This option would be a story where Naruto joins a Dark Guild (or Phantom Lord, which is a hair's breath from being a Dark Guild) and most likely defects to Fairy Tail later.


	23. Return Home

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail

* * *

**Knight & Swordsman Arc**

**23. Return Home**

"It's been too long," Naruto said under his breath as he walked down the streets of Magnolia.

For the last month or so, he had been doing jobs with Mystogan at the older mage's request. They had simply been taking out minor Dark Guilds. Naruto had just been thankful that he had been able to spend some time away from Erza. Things would have grown awkward otherwise.

As he reached the guild, he could not help but look impressive. Apparently, the new guild was pretty impressive in construction and size.

Moving forward, he walked through what appeared to be an outdoor café that even had a gift shop. None of his personal friends were out there, though many of the mages present looked excited to see him back.

Entering the guild, he saw that it was even larger than before and had individual, round tables instead of long tables that stretched halfway across the room. There was a bar and a second floor like there used to be, but there was also a stage off to the side.

"Welcome back!" Mirajane said cheerfully.

Naruto's eyes went to the bar where Mirajane, Cana, and Makarov were smiling, clearly happy to see that he was back.

"I see the job went okay," Makarov noted.

"It was a piece of cake. Mystogan's a pretty good fighter. We took down seven Dark Guilds together," Naruto said with a grin as he walked over and took a seat at the bar. "Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah," Cana said with a chuckle. "A week or so after you left, Loke went missing, so we went looking for him. As it turns out, he's one of the Celestial Spirits of the Zodiac. He was banished from the Spirit World for playing a part in his previous master's death. Lucy managed to get his punishment revoked though, and now she has his key."

"Wow," Naruto said. After getting to know Loke a bit better, he had come to like the guy. Hearing that he was a Celestial Mage was a big shocker. It actually saddened him since he knew Celestial Spirits generally did not stay in Earth Land for too long.

"He gave Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and Erza tickets to Akane Resort for a vacation too. That's why there's not here," Cana said. The atmosphere grew serious at that point.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked with concern clear in his voice.

"We have been informed that Erza and the others were involved in an incident. They sent a message to us last night. Apparently, Erza was captured and taken to a placed called _the Tower of Heaven_. Let's just say that the tower could bring Zeref back to life and leave it at that. Because of the damage it could have done, the Magic Council authorized the firing of Etherion, a magic weapon that could destroy anything in its path. However, the tower was actually a giant lacrima and absorbed its power. In the end, Erza, Natsu, and the others defeated the ones behind the plot and destroyed the tower, but it'll be a little while before they get back," Makarov said calmly. "In other news, the King ordered the Council to disband for firing Etherion near the coast of a foreign nation. Given that Siegrain and Ultear betrayed the Council and brought it to ruin, it's easy to see that the King had good reason to disband them without the near act of war. So at this time, there is no Magic Council, and that's one bit of good news."

"How is Erza?" Naruto asked in concern.

"I'm fine."

Naruto turned around and was shocked to see Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy standing in the doorway.

"You missed some fun," Natsu said with a thumb up.

"What really happened?" Naruto asked, his eyes on all four of them.

"I'll explain to everyone here," Erza said as she cleared her throat.

With that, she began to explain the entire Tower of Heaven incident and her past.

* * *

After Erza finished telling everyone about what happened, she walked over to Naruto and tapped him on the shoulder. Then, she made her way out the doors.

Curiosity was clear in his eyes as he followed Erza out of the guild around to the back. That was when he first noticed that they had put a swimming pool out back. No one was around though, so it was a safe place to talk.

When he stood before her, she looked at him with a torrent of emotion brimming under the surface.

"I'm sorry that you had to find out everything now. I… I should have told you back before we ever became a team. It held me back… I didn't feel right around you as long as I kept it a secret," she said softly.

"You… you rejected me because of that?" Naruto asked quietly without a clear emotion in his voice. Erza nodded her head as she looked down. "Why? Did you think I'd care if I knew you were a slave? Did you think I'd care if I knew you killed the guards when you were little? Did you think I'd care if I knew you were forced to leave behind your friends?" After a few moments, he took a deep breath. "I'll be honest with you. I do care."

Erza looked crestfallen at those words.

"I care because I know how strong you really are now. I care because I know that you've felt the same burden of having blood on your hands as I have. And I care because you know what I feel like. Like you, I did not have a choice in staying with my friends or leaving them," Naruto said, making her look at him in surprise. "And I care, most of all, because like me, you wouldn't go back to how things used to be no matter what, even if it did mean that you never would have left your friends. Compared to that, what we've gotten in return is a hell of a lot more important. If it wasn't for everything that I've gone through, I wouldn't have gotten to meet you, Erza."

Erza's eyes went back down to the ground at his words, but a smile was easy to see on her face, as were the tears falling from her natural eye.

"You know… I think I'm uncomfortable like this around you," Erza said as she looked back at him. Suddenly, her armor glowed and disappeared, leaving her in her normal clothes. "This is much better," she said as she stepped closer to him. "All these years, I've felt uncomfortable around others without my armor on… but I don't feel that way around my friends now. But you… I don't feel comfortable wearing my armor at all around you. I feel too safe around you for it to feel comfortable wearing it."

"In that case, you shouldn't wear it," Naruto said with a smile as he stepped closer to her, leaving about six inches between them. "You definitely shouldn't wear your armor tomorrow night when I take you out."

A sly grin appeared on Erza's face at that. "That sounded like you're asking me out."

"Nah, I'm not asking," Naruto said with a grin. "I tried that last time and you said no. Now, you don't really have an excuse, so I'm just not going to take no for an answer. Why should I ask?"

"I won't complain," Erza said as she stepped forward again with a smile.

"Then be ready at six tomorrow night," Naruto said as he closed the distance between her and put his arms around her lower back. At that distance, their noses were only about an inch apart.

"I will," Erza said as she put her arms around his neck.

"I can't wait," Naruto said before he leaned in and kissed her. Much to his delight, she kissed back

The kiss broke sooner than either wished it to, but they needed to breath.

"You know… we could try some of the stuff in those books you like to read," Naruto said suggestively.

Erza just rolled her eyes with a smile. "Maybe later. I'm not the type of girl to do any of that after we just started going out though."

"Oh, we're going on?" Naruto asked, seeing that she said it differently than one would if they were talking about going on a single date.

"You don't actually think I'm going to let you go, do you?" Erza asked with a sweet smile. "You're mine now. Just like you didn't ask for the date, I'm not asking here. You're my boyfriend. Simple as that."

"I see," Naruto said… or rather, he tried to say.

Before he could finish saying it, Erza kissed him.

Unbeknownst to them, their exchange did not go unnoticed.

* * *

Through the window of the door that led to the swimming pool, Mirajane and Cana had watched the entire ordeal.

Once Erza kissed Naruto again, they retreated from the door just to make sure that the strongest woman in Fairy Tail did not see them.

"Wow… that was unexpected," Cana said as she exhaled a deep breath.

"I never thought I'd see Erza kiss a guy like that," Mirajane admitted with a smile. "I'm happy it was Naruto though. He deserves it."

"Now that _Titania_ has claimed him, no one else is going to have a chance with him," Cana commented. She sighed at that point. "Maybe I should have tried to break him in before she claimed him."

Mirajane looked shocked at Cana's words. "I thought you didn't like him like that."

"I don't," Cana agreed. "I have, however, seen him training without a shirt. Plus, I'm pretty close to Gray. Spending that much time around a guy who tends to get completely naked on a regular basis lowers your inhibitions about things like sex."

"You better hope she doesn't hear you say that," Mirajane said with a giggle.

Deep down, Mirajane had to admit that she was jealous of Erza. Even if she did not have really strong feelings for him, she thought he was fairly attractive and a good guy. The thought of dating him did not disturb her in the least either.

Still, she would respect Erza's wishes. It was not as if either one of them would have been happy with the concept of sharing or an intimate but non-emotional relationship. They were alike in many ways, so such a possibility was non-existent.

Admittedly, Mirajane had to acknowledge that if she and Erza were not friends, then she would have backed down so easily. If they were still rivals, they would have probably fought for him, and her desire for him would have been even greater because of how angry it would have made Erza.

Their relationship had greatly improved since then though.

She broke away from her thoughts as Cana said something.

"So if she's the Queen of Faeries and he's her boyfriend… lover… or whatever you want to call it, then does that mean he's the King of Faeries?" Cana asked curiously.

"Forget it. The Queen isn't going to let him have concubines."

Both girls turned around and were shocked to see a smirking Makarov.

"True," Cana said with a wistful smile as she looked out the window once again to see that they were no longer kissing but were fighting with bastard swords. "Damn, they're going at it pretty good."

As fast as they could, Makarov and Mirajane rushed to the door to see. Once they realize they were duped, they found themselves being stared at by Naruto and Erza, both of which had swords out.

"Have fun," Cana said with a laugh as she left them behind. They had not seen her, after all.

* * *

Mystogan actually smiled upon seeing an Anima appear about thirty miles to the west of Magnolia.

In his job with Naruto, he had been forced to abandon the blond occasionally so he could shut down an Anima down when it appeared. Doing it each and every time with his staves was a difficult task, especially since he had to make sure they never ran out of magical power.

That time, he did not reach for a staff though. He raised his hands to the sky and grunted as he felt a great weight settle on his shoulders.

Carefully, he brought his hands together, though it felt as if he was trying to crush a rock with his bare hands. After a minute or so, they clapped together and the Anima closed.

His smile grew bigger as he looked at his hands once more.

He no longer needed his staves. Naruto's new seal had worked, it seemed.

The Prince of Edolas now possessed the one thing every human in his world desired: a source of unlimited magical power. It was what all mages in Earth Land possessed, but that did not change anything.

"You've paid your debt in full to me, Naruto," Mystogan mused aloud. In all reality, Naruto had paid him far more than he had expected. The amount of magical power that Mystogan possessed was four times what Naruto had initially possessed.

Initially was the keyword, of course.

As he made his way away from the spot where the Anima had started to form, his mind went to the most important matter to consider at that moment.

While he could not close Anima more efficiently, it was not a solution to the problem. King Faust needed to be stopped. He only hoped that he could put it off long enough for Naruto to get ready.

They had done more than just stop a few Dark Guilds together, after all.

Plans had been set in motion.

* * *

Author's Note: So Naruto and Erza have finally gotten together the way I planned from the start. It didn't come out as well as I intended, but things rarely do.

Anyways, I feel I should clarify that Cana does not like Naruto in an emotional way (like lovers or spouses do.) I don't want to potray her as a slut or anything, but she does seem like a party girl to me and one of her close friends does get naked a lot. She also has no qualms about using the Fairy Tail version of the Sexy Jutsu, as seen when she fought Freed in the S-Class Trial Arc. As for Mirajane... she has a crush on Naruto. It's not that strong though.

Now...

In case you're not following my other stories, listen up. This is the last arc (and second to last chapter) of Kitsune of Fairy Tail. I lack inspiration for Naruto as a Requip Mage, so I'll end it at either Chapter 24 and finish it off with a sequel later. When inspiration strikes so I can write Naruto as a Requip Mage, I'll write the sequel. At that time, I'll post a notice at the end of this story.

But first, I'd like to offset this news with a gift… an omake. It might not be amazing, but I'd like to think it was a decent try at an omake.

Below this, you'll find the first omake I've ever written. It takes place after the Edolas Arc but before the S-Class Trial Arc. It fits in with this story's continuity too, by the way.

* * *

**Omake: The Truth Comes Out**

"I've finally done it. I've opened up a business," Makarov said cheerfully as he took a big swig of his beer.

"Oh?" Naruto asked curiously as he glanced around. It was late at night, and the only people still in the guild were him and Gray. Cana and Juvia were on a job together, as were Natsu and Lucy. Surprisingly enough, Erza and Mirajane had left to do a job together as well. It seemed that the latter was trying to get back into shape so she could truly call herself an S-class mage.

"Yeah, I just rented the place," Makarov said with a grin. "You know how I can use my Titan Magic on other people, right?"

"Yeah, you used it on Reedus to make his torso bigger so he could use his Pict Magic better," Gray said thoughtfully.

"That's not all," Makarov said as he giggled perversely. "Haven't you noticed how many of the girls around the guild have big ones?"

"Of course," Naruto and Gray said in sync. Moments later, they paled.

"No… don't tell me you used your Titan Magic to make them bigger," Naruto said, shock filling him as the Master of Fairy Tail grinned.

"I don't have to touch the body part I want to make it grow," Makarov said, his grin growing. "No one notices it since most of the girls join Fairy Tail when they're young. If I do it slowly, they never notice it."

"You're not saying what I think you are… are you?" Naruto asked.

"You should be thanking me. Erza joined pretty young," Makarov said with a wink.

"What about Levy and Laki?" Gray asked. "They're not as big."

"If I did, then they'd start suspecting me," Makarov said with an even bigger grin.

"So Mirajane, Erza, Cana, Evergreen, Lucy…" Naruto began.

"I wouldn't use it on Lucy," Makarov said as he shook his head. "We met her at the same time. If I did it now, she'd fall on her melons every day." Naturally, he giggled again. "I did meet Juvia at a Regular Meeting before Jose got a bur stuck up his ass though."

"You used it on Juvia too?" Gray asked dumbfounded. He was not sure whether to thank Makarov or hit him as the old man nodded.

"You know they're going to kill you when they find out, right?" Naruto deadpanned.

"How are they going to find out?" he asked with a grin.

Suddenly, the doors opened and the scariest sight known to man walked through the door: Erza in her Heaven's Wheel Armor and Mirajane in her Satan Soul form.

"You're pretty loud when you're tipsy, Master," Naruto said as he stood up and walked to the corner of the room so he would not get thrashed alongside Makarov. Before they could get to him, however, he asked, "What's that business you mentioned, Master?"

"Makarov's Hooters," Makarov said proudly. He nearly slapped himself as Titania and the Demon walked towards him.

"You should have stayed quiet," Gray said as he moved out of the way.

The next day, Makarov was put in the hospital with several broken bones. All of the girls were informed of what he had been doing, but no one had asked him to reverse the magic.

In fact, a few of the less well-developed girls experienced a boost in the coming days.

Needless to say, all of the other guys were happy… except Elfman, who had fend of numerous guys when Lisanna turned out to be one of the aforementioned girls.


	24. A Date with Titania

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail

* * *

**Knight and Swordsman Arc**

**24. A Date with Titania**

Naruto was unsure how to describe how he felt when he woke up the next day.

Seeing Erza again, becoming a couple, and training with her for several hours… it had all been an amazing experience.

As he sat up in his bed, he took note of the sound of water running. It seemed as though someone had turned his shower on.

Rising to his feet, he walked out of his room wearing only his boxers. He immediately noticed the bathroom door was shut. As he reached for the door knob, the door opened.

On the other side of it was Erza, clad only in a towel.

Naturally, he was a dumbstruck by the sight of her, especially since they had gone to their separate homes the previous night.

"Good to see you're awake," Erza said with a smile. "I got tired of waiting for you to wake up, so I decided to take a shower. I hope you don't mind."

"I don't, but it might send the wrong message if you keep standing in front of me with a towel on," Naruto said with a nervous laugh.

"Would you prefer if I dropped it?" Erza asked suggestively. She started laughing at the look on his face afterwards. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto asked with a grin.

He caught off guard as he put his arms around her and kissed her passionately.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten one crucial thing.

He was only wearing boxers and Erza was only wearing a towel.

When the kiss was broken, Erza blushed and pointed down. "You might want to put some pants on before you do that again."

Naruto was completely embarrassed when he realized what Erza was talking about. Apparently, she had felt something when he moved in close to her.

"I'll go get dressed," he said with a blush.

"You do that," Erza said as she suddenly requipped into a set of clothes. Under her breath she said, "I definitely have something to look forward to, it seems."

Naruto was further embarrassed as he heard her words. His hearing was too good at times, it seemed.

Still, he went and got dressed into one of his normal sets of clothes, doing his best to regain his calm in the process.

Once he was finished, he came out and smiled at Erza.

She walked over to him and hugged him, putting her head against is shoulder. "I couldn't stop thinking about you last night."

"I'll never stop thinking about you," he whispered as he kissed her atop the head.

"You can be pretty sweet," Erza said as she lifted her head. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before looking to the door. "Master said he had an announcement. We should still have a little while before it comes up, so maybe we can get Mira to fix us something to eat."

"Or we could have some fun," Naruto said with a straight face.

"I haven't hit you for anything you've said that has been perverted… yet. Do you want that to change?" Erza asked. Her tone was not serious, however. It sounded playful.

"Depends… do you have a dominatrix outfit?" Naruto asked with a wink.

"Behave," Erza said as she rolled her eyes. She did not answer the question, however.

"But seriously, I didn't mean _that_ kind of fun," Naruto said with a laugh. "I meant this kind of fun."

With that, he picked her up bridal-style and dashed out of his apartment with her in his arms.

As soon as he got outside of the apartment building with her, he decided to show her what it was like to jump from building top to building top.

* * *

"Okay, that was fun," Erza admitted as he set her down a few blocks from the guild. She had insisted that he not carry her all the way there. After all, it would not have been good if their comrades saw him carrying her. It was hard to be scared of someone that let a guy carry her around bridal-style, and she needed Natsu and Gray to fear her in order to keep them in line.

"I knew you'd like it," Naruto said with a grin.

"I'd have liked it more if I had been the only girl you had done it with though," Erza said with a thoughtful smile.

"You're the only one I've liked this way though," Naruto pointed out, remembering when he carried Cana home the night of their date.

"Smart move," Erza said under her breath.

"So we still have forty minutes until the announcement from what you told me," Naruto commented thoughtfully. "What are we going to do?"

"Let's get something to eat… and there are pool tables in the basement now," Erza said with a smile. "I'm not bad at it either."

Naruto grinned. In other words, she was pretty good at it. "Sure thing. Let's play."

With that, they made their way to the guild.

As they entered the outdoor café and walked into the inside of the guild, all eyes were upon them. That may have been because they were holding hands and smiling, but neither of them could know for sure.

"Look at the love birds," Mirajane said cheerfully as soon as she saw them, bringing a light blush to their faces, though Erza was able to control it far more easily.

"Mira, could you fix us something quick to eat?" Erza asked with a smile. "We're going downstairs to play pool."

"Sure thing," Mirajane said with a smile as she went to the kitchen to do just that.

Whispers spread throughout the room at Mirajane's words and the lack of a denial by Erza. The Fairy Queen and her boyfriend just went downstairs without paying any mind to them. That did not prevent the others from talking about it, however.

* * *

"Did I miss something?" Lucy asked in shock once Naruto and Erza were downstairs. "They were holding hands, and she wasn't even wearing her armor… and Mira called them love birds… but Erza didn't deny it."

Essentially, her brain was overloading.

"You should have seen them kissing last night," Cana said with a smirk. "I also saw him jumping from rooftop to rooftop with her in his arms on my way here."

"This is just… I know you guys said they liked each other, but I didn't really expect this," Lucy said as she took a deep breath.

"She _likes_ him," Happy said, rolling his tongue as he spoke. "And he _likes_ her."

"He's a brave man," Natsu said, still shocked by what he had seen.

"He is a man!" Elfman exclaimed. "Only the manliest of men would dare to try to tame Titania."

"And they can hear anything said up here. The basement door is still open," Makarov commented dryly from his spot.

Naturally, that silenced the room, making them all look nervously towards the door. It was clear that they expected Naruto and Erza to walk out any moment, but they never did.

* * *

"We're just going to pretend that we didn't hear them, I take it?" Naruto asked as he watched Erza sink yet another ball in the corner pocket.

"As tempting as it is to don my Heaven's Wheel Armor… or even one of my stronger armors… I fear that would just spread the rumors even faster," Erza said before she looked at him with a wink. "Plus, I have no intention of hiding that we're in a relationship. It'll discourage anyone from trying to still you, at least."

"That's won't be too hard," Naruto said as he watched Erza finally miss a shot. "A reported from the Sorcerer is supposed to show up next week. I'm sure they'd love to hear the news."

"You'll be famous yet," Erza said with a smile.

"On a side note, does this mean I can punch out guys who look at you when you're wearing your more… unique… armors?" Naruto asked, thinking of her more revealing armors.

"No," Erza said as she rolled her eyes. "I generally fight guys, and they do have a good reason to look at me. However… feel free to punch out anyone who addresses me as _my honey_."

"Talking about Ichiya, are you?" Mirajane asked as she descended the stairs with two hamburgers on a platter in her right hand. "I'm sure she'd _reward_ you if you punched him." At that, she giggled.

"Ichiya?" Naruto asked in confusion. A blush slowly covered his face as he realized what Mirajane insinuated with her last words.

"Behave Mira," Erza said with a sigh. "Naruto, don't worry about it. There's just this short, annoying guy in Blue Pegasus who never leaves me alone when he's around. I will be grateful if you hit him when he's around though."

"Okay," Naruto said with a shrug as he walked over and took the hamburgers from Mirajane. He trusted Erza. If she said not to worry about something, then he had no plans to worry about it.

"Let's eat," Erza said as she took her hamburger from Naruto with a smile. "We'll finish our game afterwards."

* * *

A short time later, every member of Fairy Tail that was in town was in the bar hall of Fairy Tail. Makarov was sitting atop the bar with a rather attractive blue haired girl next to him.

Many of the people in the room recognized her as Juvia, one member of the Element Four of Phantom Lord.

"Today, I'd like to welcome to new members to the guild. One is Juvia Lockser. Though she was a former member of Phantom Lord, I ask that everyone accept her as one of our own," Makarov said. By his tone, it was clear that there would be a problem for anyone who refused to accept her.

Naruto had no qualms about accepting her as a fellow member of Fairy Tail. Erza had told him about her part in the Tower of Heaven incident, after all.

"Juvia will do her best," the blue haired girl said with a smile.

_She talks about herself like that? That's kind of weird._ Still, he had seen stranger things… like Might Guy. No one could compare to him.

"Welcome to the guild," Gray said, earning a smile and a blush from Juvia.

His words were echoed throughout the room by others, but she only gave that reaction to him.

"She _likes_ him," Happy said, rolling his tongue as he spoke.

Coincidentally, the water from a cup near the cat shot at him and soaked him moments later.

Who would have thought that a Water Mage could do that?

"And our other new member is…."

At that, the door to the guild opened, and Gajeel Redfox walked in.

"Don't," Erza said as she grabbed Naruto's wrist. Apparently, she had realized that he was about to pull out a sword and attack him.

"Like Juvia, I ask that you all accept Gajeel as a new member of Fairy Tail. We may have had our differences in the past, but he is now one of us."

"Juvia is one thing, but he attacked the guild," Erza said, conflicted by the situation.

"Were you under orders," Naruto asked as he looked Gajeel in the eyes. When the Iron Dragon Slayer did not respond, he said, "If you ever want our rematch, you'll answer the question."

"Fine," Gajeel said with a snort. "I was under orders to incite a counter attack by Fairy Tail against Phantom Lord. Are you happy?"

"No," Naruto said, though he was definitely smiling. "I do want to know why you didn't go after me when I was knocked out that night. Your excuses last time were lies."

"Dragons have pride," Gajeel said evenly. "They don't kill or humiliate a worthy opponent. You clearly don't have the same qualms though."

"I don't kill worthy opponents either," Naruto said, grinning at the memory of using his Thousand Years of Death on Gajeel. He took a deep breath before he looked around the room. "I think the Master is right. If this guy wants to be a member, I say we should treat him like that." He paused as he looked back at Gajeel. His next words were colder than Gray's magic. "But if you harm anyone else here, I will destroy you."

"You would have been a good Dragon Slayer," Gajeel said before he walked over and took a seat at an empty table in the room.

One thought ran through everyone's minds.

_Was that actually a compliment?_

* * *

That night, Naruto stood outside of Erza's door in the nicest clothes he had ever worn. He had bought black dress shoes, black slacks, and an orange button up dress shirt.

H stood motionless outside of her room, unsure if he should knock or wait a little longer. He had shown up early to make sure he was on time, but he did not want to rush her or anything.

Still, he knew that she was in her bedroom. He could still feel her magical power coming from inside of it.

He had never figured out why he was only able to sense Erza's magical power and not anyone else's. Well… that was not exactly correct. Because of the process of giving Mystogan using the lacrimas that they found inside the bases of the Dark Guilds they wiped out, Naruto could sense his magical power at any time, even when a great distance stood between them.

Still, Erza's magical power was the only source he could sense under ordinary circumstances.

"How long are you going to wait out there?"

Naruto was surprised to hear the question as the door opened, revealing Erza. She was wearing a long black dress that was held up by a strap that ran across the back of her neck, leaving her back uncovered.

"Until an angel comes and rescues me," Naruto answered as he put his arms around her. "And here she is." With that, he kissed her.

"That's a good Oberon," Erza said once the kiss was broken.

Naruto smiled at the reference to Titania's husband in the legends of the Fairy Queen.

"I swear you're getting better each time we kiss," Erza said as she put her arms around his neck.

"Practice makes perfect," Naruto remarked. "So are you ready?"

"Of course," Erza said as she moved her hands from his neck and held his right hand. "Where are you taking me?"

"You'll see," Naruto said as he picked her up bridal style. When he did, he could not help but notice something bounce a little.

"Naruto, are you going to carry me somewhere, or are you just going to look at my chest?" Erza asked in amusement.

"I'll get back to you on that one," Naruto answered, earning a laugh from Erza.

"Even if you're more perverted around me than most guys, I do have to say that you're a pretty funny guy," Erza with a smile. "But if you don't move your eyes, I'm going to hit you."

"If you do that, I'll drop you," Naruto countered.

"We both know you're tougher than that," Erza retorted with a smirk.

"No one wins arguments with you, do they?" Naruto asked with a laugh.

"Only when I let them," Erza answered as she laughed with him.

"Right then," Naruto said as he carried her away from there.

* * *

After leaving Fairy Hills, Naruto had used the Body Flicker Technique in rapid succession to bring Erza to a small restaurant in downtown Magnolia.

The restaurant was called _Cedric's_, and it was not exactly the nicest restaurant in town. However, the look on Erza's face told Naruto that he had done something right.

"They have the best cheesecake I've ever had in my life," Erza said as she looked at Naruto with excitement. "I could just kiss you right now."

And she did.

"Mira told me it was your favorite restaurant when I asked her after you headed home to get ready," Naruto said with a chuckle. "Since they're not normally open today, they're letting us have the entire restaurant to ourselves."

Cedric's was only open on weekends, so it had taken a few jewels to convince the owner to bring in a waiter and a cook just for them. Naruto was definitely not lacking jewels though, so he did not particularly care.

"I'm lucky to have a guy like you," Erza mused as they walked in.

They were immediately guided by the sole waiter in the building to a candle lit table in the middle of the room.

As they took a seat, Naruto picked up the menu and looked through it. It was definitely not the nicest restaurant in town, but it was still somewhere that the majority of the middle class of Magnolia could not afford to eat at regularly. He could tell that when he saw that the menu did not list the price of anything.

There was an old saying that Naruto was reminded of. _If you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can't afford it._

So long as the dinner did not cost a year's worth of his rent, or more than a month of Erza's rent, then he would be fine.

Erza ordered a salad, a fairly good sized steak, and some tea while Naruto looked for what he wanted. His tastes were not exactly refined, never having been to a place like that before, so he was unsure what to get. In the end, he just asked for the same thing Erza ordered.

Once the waiter walked away, Erza asked, "So Naruto, why do you still live in that apartment of yours?"

"It's just a place to eat, shower, and sleep," Naruto said with a shrug. "I stay at the guild most of the time, so I don't think much about moving somewhere else."

"If it wasn't against the rules, I'd let you move in with me," Erza said, shocking Naruto. "It might surprise you, but I don't think the same way as most people. Just for example… when Natsu joined Fairy Tail, I was twelve and Gray was eleven. All three of us have showered together. I never thought anything was strange about it, though Lucy did think it was strange when she heard about it."

Naruto was dumbstruck by that. He had never imagined such a thing.

"Some people equate living together as something beyond what it is. They tend to assume that a guy and a girl cannot live under the same roof without having sex," Erza said with a shrug. "Perhaps I'm strange in the way I think, but that's just how it is. Still, I might be headgirl at Fairy Hills, but the owner is adamant about guys not living there."

"What about when I stayed in your room for a few days during the war with Phantom?" Naruto asked curiously.

"You don't actually think you're the first guy to spend the night in the girls' dormitory, do you?" she asked, laughing a little when he nodded. "It's not really covered by any rules, but a few of the girls do invite guys to spend the night with them there, especially Evergreen."

Naruto had no idea who Evergreen was, but Erza just kept talking.

"Of course, none of the guys that stay with her ever actually makes it the entire night before she kicks them out," Erza said with a shake of her head. "I just hope Gray doesn't spend the night there any time soon. That new girl… Juvia… it's pretty obvious she likes him. The reason it took me so long to get ready was because she submitted an application to live at Fairy Hills, and I had to go over it."

"Gray probably doesn't realize she likes him," Naruto said with a laugh. How the Ice-Make Mage was too aloof to realize something so obvious was unknown to him.

"I suppose so," Erza agreed with a smile.

As they waited for dinner, they continued to talk about more things that had bene on their minds but had not really been of any consequential value, like if Natsu and Lucy were more than friends, if Cana's crush on Macao was one way or not, if Happy would ever meet a talking girl cat, and various other things.

* * *

After they finished their meal and their cheesecake, Naruto and Erza walked out of the restaurant. They were not holding hands, despite the fact that they had done so pretty much non-stop earlier that day. Of course, the ten cheesecakes in Naruto's hands prevented them from doing that.

Erza's appetite for sweets was only paralleled by Naruto's appetite for ramen, it seemed.

"I'll help you get these home," Naruto said with a chuckle. He had no doubts that she could carry them herself, but he had no intention of handing them to her and letting her leave. It was only right for him to walk her home, after all.

"It'll be too late for you to go home if you do that," Erza said, biting her lip in thought. An idea came to her within moments, and it was a good one if her eyes had anything to say about it. "Do you want to spend the night with me? Don't get me wrong. I'm not ready for _that_ or anything, but I've had a good time. I don't want it to end."

"I can do that," Naruto said with a smile. "Lead on."

* * *

Several hours later, Naruto smiled as he laid at the edge of Erza's rather small bed. She was asleep, cuddled up to him were her head on her chest. Sleep had only come to her after a rather long make-out session between the two, and Naruto was unsure what he enjoyed most.

Seeing her sleeping soundly on his chest in her pajamas with her hair all over the place… it stirred an emotion in him.

"I wouldn't give this up for anything," he whispered to himself. "If there's a god… thanks for making me get caught in Kakashi-sensei's technique. I'd rather have her like this than be Hokage any day."

Closing his eyes, he said the truest words that he had ever spoken. "I love her."

Had his eyes been open, he could have seen the smile on Erza's face or her opening eyes.

Before long, he was asleep, and Erza whispered words of her own. "I love you too."

With that, she fell asleep. Unlike her, he was completely asleep when she said her words though. He had no idea that she heard him or said it back.

Even so, a bright future stood before them.

* * *

Author's Note: With that, Kitsune of Fairy Tail is done.

I'll finish the tale of Naruto and Erza in the sequel, which I'll announce in an author's note at the end of here when I'm ready to do it.

In the mean time, enjoy my other works. and enjoy yourselves.


	25. Author's Note

This is NOT a chapter. This is merely an author's note.

I commonly get asked when I'll post the sequel to Kitsune of Fairy Tail. As of right now, I highly doubt a sequel to the story known as "Kitsune of Fairy Tail" will be posted. Don't jump to conclusions just yet though.

Kitsune of Fairy Tail was written on a different computer than the one I'm currently using. With the death of that computer's hard drive, I lost my notes that would have allowed me to write the sequel as it was intended. As a result, I kept putting it off until just recently. When I finally decided to write it, I reread the original story and found parts that didn't match up to the outlines that I tried to make for the sequel. As a result, I didn't start working on a sequel.

With some editing, I could fix Kitsune of Fairy Tail so that I could write a sequel, but I realized something. I couldn't bring myself to replace the chapters of this story with new, edited chapters. Kitsune of Fairy Tail was my first Naruto/Fairy Tail crossover. I could sooner delete Kenji Tenchi, my first real Naruto fanfic, than this (which I probably should, seeing as how it makes me cry just reading over it.) I want Kitsune of Fairy Tail to remain on the site in the condition that it's in. That does not mean, however, that I can't edit it and post it as a new story with the continuation following it.

So I will be editing it heavily. Call the new version a rewrite, a revision, a new draft, or whatever you want. What you call it doesn't affect me.

Be warned that I will change Naruto's style of magic so that he solely uses Caster Magic in combat. I will change one other major thing that was going to be a pain once the Edolas Arc came up: Naruto's possession of chakra and magic.

To further explain, I will say that Naruto's chakra would go dormant as time went on in Earthland and he would gain magical power naturally before he even joined Fairy Tail. That isn't the only way to solve the issue at hand, but I also don't want to write about a shinobi in Fairy Tail. I want to write about Naruto as a mage. If a change solves two problems, then I'm fine with it.

Given my track record with rewriting, I won't blame you if you are skeptical about this.

That's why I will not be posting anything until I have gotten to the same point in the timeline that I was at in Kitsune of Fairy Tail.

So when can you expect this?

I'll delete this and post another author's note when it's time.

I was going to try to do it within the next week, but my track record with rewrites tells me that's a horrible idea. With any luck, the story will be online next month. I will want to go over it very carefully before I post it to make sure it's something I can be happy with and continue to write on. I do not want a repeat of Second Chance/Consequences.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.


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